50 NOTES ON THE 
tensive marshes, where for the time the tadpoles have attracted 
them by their abundance. But they were here before that. 
time, having followed closely upon the track of the Mallards 
and other early ducks 
In large and medium flocks, they will then be found along the 
recently opened streams, and in the woodlands where they 
spend much of their time in search of acorns, insects, snails, 
and larvee of different kinds, which are under the wet leaves 
and on the old decaying logs with which the forests abound. 
Under these circumstances, they scatter widely, so that the 
first one encountered will seem to be a wanderer, but a little 
distance away another will be flushed, and so until several 
have flown off before the flock will rise as a whole, and perhaps 
not even then if no gun has been fired to simultaneously disturb 
them. Yet, when in the water they rarely scatter much, but 
swim very compactly as a flock, uttering a low chattering note 
as they move evenly along over the quiet surface. If driven to 
wing, they rise as compactly as they swim, a circumstance in 
their habits which has been noticed through their history, and 
has been made available and profitable by the pothunters: I 
have no reliable evidence that they breed in the southern por- 
tions of the State, but find them doing so limitedly in the mid- 
dle, and commonly in the northern. They have been found 
with the young in July in several localities, and samples of 
their eggs which were taken from their nests in early June in 
Becker county have been sent to me by Mr. Blanche of Detroit. 
Mr. Treganowan reported the presence of the species in Kan- 
diyohi county in June and July, and Mr. Lewis in early August 
at Big Stone. Near Herman in Grant county, a German farmer 
saw them at different times during the summer, and shot some 
of them in August which he had mounted, that established 
their identity. Iwas many years ago told that this species was 
breeding in Medina in my own county, but never having found 
them breed myself, I took this statement with some qualifica 
tion until I found the adult birds myself, following which the 
eges were brought to me from the same vicinity by Mr. J. C. 
Bailey, who resided there for many years. 
They are among the shyest of the Duck family, and might 
elude common observation for a long period in any section 
while fairly represented. About the second week in October, 
often somewhat earlier, they begin to leave us in this locality, 
and are all gone by the first of November. 
