110 NOTES ON THE 
even after the ice had formed, leaving only small patches of 
open water into which they crowded in a dense black mass. 
Quoting from his memorandum of the 21st, he says:—‘: Last 
right was cold and still, and this morning it is a comical sight 
to see them standing on the slippery surface of the ice. When 
alighting, the impetus of their flight causes them to slide 
along like a schoolboy on skates. A foot slips from under 
one, down it goes, sprawling with outstretched wings, but soon 
regaining its feet to try again. In the unfrozen spots, the 
water was black with them, mingled with Ducks, the whole 
looking like a compact black body, while on the edges of the 
ice, large Mallards and Red-heads stood looking with suspicion 
towards the spot where I stood.” 
Rey. J. H. Langille’s description of many of the habits of this 
species is so nearly like the notes I find in my own note book, 
that I should subject myself to the suspicion of plagiarism if I 
did not either reword them, or quote him, so I accept the latter 
alternative, with the cheerful acknowledgment that I think him 
entitled to the copyright, for although the later written, they 
are the better. He says in his ‘‘Our Birds in their Haunts,” 
pp. 405-6; ‘‘Its breeding habitat is from Northern New Eng- 
land, the Great Lakes, and corresponding latitudes, northward. 
It breeds in such abundance as to be the characteristic bird on 
St. Clair flats, where they are as common as hens in a farm 
yard. The nest is in reedy pools or shallow water about rivers, 
lakes and ponds, composed of dried grasses and sedges, after 
the manner of the Rails and Gallinules, sometimes tied to the 
tallclumps of sedges, and yet resting on a mass of floating debris; 
sometimes resting on the dry ground near their watery abodes. 
On St. Clair flats it is a floating nest, anchored to the cat-tails 
and sedges, resembling that of the Common Gallinule, but gen- 
erally placed further out in the flooded marshes, towards the 
channels and the lake. 
‘Some twelve inches in external diameter, and rising about 
eight inches above the water, it is almost invariably built of 
the dried and bleached leaves of the cat-tail; the saucer shaped 
interior being often lined with fine marsh grass. Like that of 
the Gallinule, the nest often has a gradual inclination on one 
side, forming a convenience for the bird to enter from the water. 
So free is the motion of this nest, that it may rise and fall with 
the changes of water level, or rock in the storm with perfect 
safety. 
