BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 53 
larly those of the Wild Goose and Wild Turkey. On coming 
on a nest with eggs, when the bird was absent in search of 
food, I have always found the eggs covered with feathers and 
down, although quite out of sight, in the depths of a Wood- 
pecker’s or Squirrel’s hole. 
“On the contrary when the nest was placed on the broken 
branch of a tree it could easily be observed from the ground, 
on account of the feathers, dead sticks, and withered grasses 
about it. If the nest is placed immediately over the water, 
the young, the moment they are hatched, scramble to the 
mouth of the hole, launch into the air with their little wings 
and feet spread out and drop into their favorite element; but 
whenever their birthplace is some distance from it, the mother 
carries them to it one by one in her bill, holding them so as 
not to injure their yet tender frame. On several occasions 
however, when the hole was thirty, forty, or more yards from 
a bayou or other piece of water, I observed that the mother 
suffered the young to fall on the grass and dried leaves 
beneath the tree, and afterward led them directly to the 
nearest edge of the next pool or creek. At this early age, the 
young answer to their parents’ call with a mellow pee, pee, 
pee-e, often and rapidly repeated. The call of the mother at. 
such times is low, soft, and prolonged, resembling the sylla- 
bles pe-ee, pe-ee. The watch note of the male, which resembles 
hoe-eek, is never uttered by the female; indeed, the male him- 
self seldom uses it, unless alarmed by some uncommon sound, 
or the sight of a distant enemy, or when intent on calling 
passing birds of his own species.” 
I may be pardoned for my enthusiasm over this mag- 
nificent duck, when I state that I have enjoyed better op- 
portunities. for carefully studying its habits than of any 
other species, and the capture of a male in the _per- 
fection of his vernal plumage, was my first attainment 
in wing shooting some thirty years ago. Without a single 
stain of blood on it to mar its wondrously beautifnl adornment, 
Mr. Wm. H. Howling, of my city, mounted it for me in the 
perfection of taxidermic art, so that now after so long a time 
it is in excellent condition and on the shelves of the museum 
of the Minnesota Academy of Natural Sciences. It was 
immortalized in the interests of science in its tragic death, at 
& spot now embraced in the heart of this great and phenom- 
enal city. Since that evening, how many occasions for observ- 
ing the species have I recorded amongst my notes on the 
