BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 63 
forth tomy cottage on Lake Minnetonka during many succes- 
sive summers, I noticed now and then in the early mornings, 
an occasional solitary duck flying along the course of Minne- 
haha creek that looked in the distance like the male of this 
species. 
Afterwards Mr. T. S. Roberts found the nest at a point not 
very remote from where I had noticed those males, as he 
informed me. Since then I have found this species breeding 
in several localities in the vicinity of Minneapolis, and in 
Kandiyohi county. I am satisfied that it does so generally 
throughout the State. Of the seventeen eggs I have had the 
opportunity to see in the nest and in the possession of a col- 
._ lector in my employment, the average measurements were, 
2.25 by 1.60 inches. They were white, with a pale wash of 
green, that varied considerably in intensity, being deepest 
before they had been blown. The nests were variously placed 
from on a muskrat house, as in the case of the one found by 
Mr. Roberts, to a flat spot in the thick rice bordering a small 
lake, as found by my ee ae 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Bill blackish, with a basal and subterminal bar of bluish- 
white; head, neck, and body all around anterior to the 
shoulders, back and tail-coverts, black; the head glossed with 
green above, on the sides with purplish-violet; the back green- 
ish; middle of neck with a narrow chestnut ring, subcontin- 
uous above; under parts, and space immediately anterior to 
the shoulder white; space anterior to the black of the 
crissum, and the sides, very finely waved with black; scapulars 
very slightly sprinkled with dots of grayish; wings plain 
grayish-brown; speculum, consisting of the terminal half of 
most of the secondaries, grayish plumbeous, the innermost of 
them tipped with white; point of chin white. 
Length, 18; wing, 8; tarsus, 1.80; commissure, 2.10. 
Habitat, North America. 
Since writing the above, I have recovered some notes 
mislaid, in which I find that both of my assistants, Messrs. 
Lewis and Treganowan, have recognized their breeding in Big 
Stone and Becker counties. The former upon finding them 
frequently in the breeding season, and the latter having found 
the nest in Becker in 1879. Mr. Washburn found them well 
represented among the ducks, breeding at Mud lake in Otter 
Pail county. Mr. J. M. Holzinger says in a communication to 
me in 1887, that this species is more abundant at Winona than 
A. afinis, but he makes no mention of its local breeding 
