560 REPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



Nest, a floating island of marsh vegetation and mud fastened to 

 Avater plants. Eggs, 4-7, whitish with greenish shadings; 1.72 by 1.99. 



Prof. Cooke notes (Bird Migration in the Mississippi Valley, p. 54) 

 that it "winters wherever there is open water, from Illinois southward, 

 and breeds from southern Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and eastern Kan- 

 sas northward." It has also been found breeding in Florida. It has 

 never been reported as wintering in Indiana, and is known as a 

 migrant, or summer resident only in this State. Throughout the 

 greater part of the State it is seen regularly, but not very commonly, 

 during the migrations, and is, perhaps, more commonly observed in 

 spring. The creeks, ponds, rivers and lakes are frequented by it. 

 Where there is no water it is comparatively unknown. Owing to the 

 screen of the season's vegetation it rs not so often noted in fall. 

 Throughout the lake region of northern Indiana it is a common sum- 

 mer resident. It arrives about April 1 and can be found in all lakes, 

 rivers and muddy ponds until the early part of November. In Lake, 

 Starke and Laporte counties it is reported as breeding abundantly, 

 and sparingly in Steuben County. Mr. Robert Ridgway (Bull. Nuttall 

 Orn. Club., Jan., 1882, p. 22) reports it breeding commonly in 

 swamps in Knox County. Prof. B. W. Evermann found it breeding 

 May 30, 1890, at Terre Haute. 



The following account of the nesting of this species near Sandusky, 

 0., by Dr. F. W. Langdon, in his "Summer Birds of a Northern Ohio 

 Marsh," will give a good idea of the floating nest. He says: "I 

 desire here to testify to the fact that the nest of the present species 

 does float. * * * * The little floating island of decayed vege- 

 tation, held together by mud and moss, which constitutes the nest of 

 this species, is a veritable ornithological curiosity. Imagine a 'pan- 

 cake' of what appears to be mud, measuring twelve to fifteen inches 

 in diameter, and rising two or three inches above the water, which 

 may be from one to three feet in depth; anchor it to the bottom with 

 a few concealed blades of 'sawgrass' in a little open bay, leaving its 

 circumference entirely free; remove a mass of wet muck from its 

 rounded top and you expose seven or eight soiled brownish-white eggs, 

 resting in a depression, the bottom of which is less than an inch from 

 the water; the whole mass is constantly damp. * * * * The 

 anchoring blades of coarse sawgrass, or flags, being always longer than 

 is necessary to reach the bottom, permit of considerable lateral and 

 vertical movement of the nest, and so effectually provide against 

 drowning of the eggs by any ordinary rise of water level, such as fre- 

 quently occurs during the prevalence of strong easterly winds on the 



