44 H ird -Nc*f ing - 



with young ducks. The old birds were very noisy and flew 

 around quacking, and the young ones took to the centre of 

 the stream. I found I was rather late for ducks' eggs, and 

 Macdonald informed me that had I been there live weeks 

 earlier I could have collected scores of ducks' eggs had I 

 wished. 



Walking through the long grass, I flushed a female, shovel- 

 ler duck and found its beautiful nest of down and ten fresh eggs. 

 The nest consisted of a hollow scooped out of the ground, and 

 inside the hollow was built a compact nest of down : the top 

 of the nest was flush with the surface of the ground. The 

 eggs are a greyish buff and average in size, 2.05x1.45. The 

 shoveller breeds in Dakota. I have a clutch of ten eggs that 

 were taken in Miner County, June 1st, 1890, and another set 

 of eleven eggs that were taken on May llth, 1890. I found the 

 shoveller to be one of the commonest ducks in the North- West. 

 I took the nest and eggs, and had proceeded only a short 

 distance, when we flushed a canvas-back from its nest of eight 

 eggs. The nest was well concealed in a cluster of rushes, and 

 also consisted of a depression in the ground, lined with feather 

 and down. The eggs are rather large, averaging, 2.40x1.70. 

 and are a pale greenish buff color. Macdonald soon afterwards 

 shot the male canvas-back, he also shot a coot and a lesser 

 scaup duck. A large black bird came flying towards us, and it 

 turned out to be a turkey vulture : they were common in this 

 district, and I saw them every day while I stayed at Rush 

 Lake. They were very tame and are never molested : they 

 come around the station house and pick up bones or any re- 

 fuse that is thrown out. I was surprised to find the turkey 

 vulture so far north, as I had always considered it a southern 

 species, but my companion informed me they visited Rush 

 Lake every spring and remain until late in the autumn. The 

 flight of this bird is very graceful, and I was never tired of 

 watching its various aerial evolutions. The setter dog had 

 evidently found something in a cluster of rushes, when sud- 

 denly a short-eared owl flew up, bang went the gun, and the 

 owl fell lifeless to the ground. On reaching the rushes, we 



