BIRD H OF KANSAS. 13 



sure (broadly) and on the culmeu; lower mandible ashy olive green, paler 

 below, and more yellowish basally; iris bright orange red, more scarlet out- 

 wardly, and with a fine thread-like white ring around the pupil; tarsi and toes 

 dull blackish on the outer side, passing on the edges into olive green; inner side 

 dull light yellowish green; inner toe apple green. Young, first plumage: Simi- 

 lar to winter adults, but colors more brownish. Downy young: Top of the 

 head, as far down as the auriculars, dusky, the forehead divided medially by a 

 white line, which soon separates into two, each of which again bifurcates on the 

 side of the crown (over the eye), one branch running obliquely downward and 

 backward to the sides of the nape, the other continued straight back to the 

 occiput; middle of the crown with a small oblong or elliptical spot of bare- 

 reddish skin. Suborbital, auricular and malar regions, chin and throat, im- 

 maculate white; fore neck pale grayish; lower parts white, becoming grayish 

 laterally and posteriorly; upper parts dusky grayish." 



Stretch of 

 Length. wing. Wing. Tail. Tarsus. Bill. 



Male 12.75 21.50 5.20 1.60 1.50 1.00 



Female... 12.00 20.25 5.00 1.50 1.45 .90 



June 4th, 1877, I had the pleasure of finding about one hun- 

 dred pairs of these birds nesting in a little cove of Como Lake, 

 a small alkali lake without outlet, in the Territory of Wyoming, 

 on the line of the Union Pacific Railway; altitude 6,680 feet. 

 The nests were in a narrow strip of rushes, growing in water 

 eighteen inches deep, and about one hundred and thirty feet 

 from the shore. Between the rushes and the shore was a heavy 

 growth of coarse marsh grass, the whole covering not over from 

 one to one and one-half acres in area. The bank being a little 

 higher than the ground back of it, the approach could be made 

 unobserved, and my appearance, so unexpected and near, gave 

 the birds no time to cover their eggs, as is their wont, giving 

 me a fine opportunity, on wading out, to see the eggs in their 

 nests. I collected the eggs from two nests, five in each, and 

 counted from where I stood over twenty nests, with from one 

 to five eggs in each. Quite a number of others were com- 

 pleted, but without eggs, and still others were building. The 

 floating nests were made of old broken rushes, weeds, and de- 

 bris from the bottom, and were partially filled in and around 

 the standing, growing rushes. There were no feathers or other 

 kind of lining. They were from five to ten inches in diameter; 

 the outer edge or rim was from two to three inches above the 



