4(i Bird-Nesting 



side of my feet, giving' me a sudden start, and there in a hole 

 underneath a clump of rushes I discovered a beautiful nest of 

 twelve eggs of the American widgeon. I could see the eggs 

 were fresh, and, as I was parched with thirst by the broiling 

 sun and we could not reach the water of the lake owing to the 

 belt of mud, I took out an egg drill and, boring a hole in the 

 side, I sucked four eggs and found them very good, and re- 

 freshing. This nest of the baldpate consisted of a hollow in the 

 sand one foot in diameter, and this was thickly lined with grass, 

 and feathers and down, on which rested the twelve pale butt- 

 coloured eggs. The American widgeon appears to be a later 

 breeder than most other ducks. I have a clutch of ten eggs that 

 were taken on the 1st of June, 1890, in Miner County, South 

 Dakota, and another clutch of eleven eggs that were collected 

 in Minnesota, June 10th, and another of seven eggs that were 

 taken June Oth, LSOO, so this species seems to nest late, even 

 much further south than Manitoba, Dr. Coues, in his " Birds 

 of the North-West," says, " In Northern Dakota I was sur- 

 prised to find young widgeons still unable to fly, even as late 

 as the middle of September, at a time when all other ducks ob- 

 served were on the \ving." The eggs of the baldpate are like those 

 of the European widgeon, pale creamy buff in colour, but are 

 smaller, averaging 2.10x1.50. As we had now more birds and 

 eggs than we could carry, we hid them from hawks and vul- 

 tures, and fastened a piece of paper to some tall rushes, so that 

 we could easily find the spot on our return. We then directed 

 our steps to the south shore of the lake, and on our way startled 

 three graceful antelopes, which bounded away at a tremendous 

 speed, and were soon out of sight. On reaching the southern 

 end of Rush Lake we found avosets very numerous and shot 

 three handsome specimens ; they were evidently nesting some- 

 where in the vicinity, but we were unable to find their nests. 

 Three kildeers had nests containing four eggs each, and we 

 also flushed a Wilson's snipe, which flew up calling out " escape," 

 and, suiting the action to the word, dashed away and alighted 

 in the rushes some distance off. We soon found its nest, a 

 slight hollow in the ground lined with bits of drift rushes. 



