WILD-FOWL OF WlLD-FoWI 



as the place where I found two Ducks' nests new 

 to me. After going over the burnt tract I pulled 

 up the tops of my boots and waded along the 

 shore, some rods out, among clumps of long grass. 

 Away went a brownish Duck, with grey wings, 

 from a tussock a little beyond me, a Redhead, I 

 saw at once. There was a very large basket-nest 

 of dry rushes, 

 lined with down, 

 and a no less size- 

 able assortment 

 of eggs, fifteen 

 of them I finally 

 counted. Each 

 egg, too, was 

 large, nearly 

 white, with a 

 faint greenish 

 tinge and a shell so smooth and hard as to remind 

 one of a billiard ball. Altogether it was a large and 

 interesting discovery. 



At this point I waded ashore and had no sooner 

 set foot on dry land than a Blue-winged Teal flushed 

 from the prairie grass, and I found her eight fresh 

 eggs in a nest of grass and down similar to those 

 already found. From this spot I had gone but a 

 short distance, when out went another Teal, and 

 directly I was inspecting eight eggs more. Hav- 

 ing by this time rested a little, I again tried wad- 

 ing, and very soon had the pleasure of seeing a 

 female Shoveler unwillingly flutter out from some 

 very thick grass near me. I had been told that 

 this species usually nested on the dry prairie, 



183 



NEST OF REDHEAD 



