THE OOLOGIST. 



161 



An Outing in Assiniboia, 1895. 



May 29, 1895. This moraing I was 

 out vei'y early and prepared for a good 

 days work. The Qa Appelle River 

 passes my brothers house within a dis- 

 tance of 600 yards. The river is about 

 200 yards wide on an average and on 

 botli sides of it there is about from 300 

 to 800 yards of thick reeds, heavy grass 

 and flags six to ten feet high, every few 

 hundred yards there are small bodies 

 of water from two to six feet deep with 

 little islands of marsh in the centre and 

 occasionally quite a stretch of dry land 

 covered with long grass making the 

 locality a paradise for many kinds of 

 Ducks, Plovers, Phalaropes, Bitterns, 

 Rails, Grebes, Gulls, Terns, Marsh 

 Hawks and a few Canada Geese. 



The Yellow- headed and Red- winged 

 Blackbirds swarmed in countless num- 

 bers and the Coots were nesting every 

 few yards. My brother told me the 

 latter birds were more numerous than 

 usual this year. 



My first find was a Red-head's nest 

 containing six fresh eggs. 'J'his nest 

 was built in a thick clump of high fiags 

 and was composed of dried flags and 

 reeds outwardly, lined with marsh hay 

 and a few bits of down. The female 

 flew from the nest when I was within 

 ten feet of it. 



A short time afterwards I almost 

 stepped on a female Mallard who flew 

 fi'om her beautiful nesfc of down con- 

 taining ten fresh eggs. This nest was 

 built in the long grass in a dry spot 

 close to the river. The Mallard flew 

 around me several times making a 

 noise and then flew into the reeds about 

 100 yards distance. My next flush was 

 a Gadwall who had a nest similar to 

 the Mallard placed in the long grass on 

 dry land close to the Qu Appelle River. 

 This nest contained six beautiful clay 

 colored eggs averaging^2.10 by 1.55. 



About half a mile further north I 

 flushed a Blue-winged Teal from her 



handsome nest and six eggs. This nest 

 was also placed in a dry locality in the 

 long grass and was within fifteen feet 

 of the river. 



Shortly after this I came to a large 

 body of water about three feet deep, 

 full of small islands of marsh, and 

 scared a lot of Red-heads, Canvas-back, 

 Scaup and Teals. Saw a Canvas-back 

 fly out of one of the clumps of marsh 

 with a loud splash and a huge quack 

 and hurrying over to the place I found 

 a very large floating nest containing 

 five eggs of the Canvas-back and three 

 eggs of the Red-head and another egg 

 of the Red-head lying in the water 

 close to the nest. The nest was mussed 

 up quite a lot and looked as if several 

 birds had been fighting for possession 

 of it. 



I am quite satisfied that the Canvas- 

 back and Red-head very often 

 lay their eggs ia the same nest. Dur- 

 ing my trip in the northwest I found 

 six difi'erent nests containing eggs of 

 the Canvas-back and Red-head and in 

 one case the nest contained three differ- 

 ent kinds of Ducks eggs. The first 

 contained 11 eggs of the Canvas-back 

 and 3 of the Red-head; second had 1-5 

 and 1-4 respectively; third had 1-5 and 

 1-6; fourth, 1-11, 1-3 and one Mallard's 

 egg; fifth contained 1-5, 1-8 and sixth 

 had 15 eggs of the Red-head and four of 

 the Canvas-back. 



The eggs of these two birds are quite 

 different in shape and color and ax'e 

 very easily distinguished apart. The 

 Canvas-back's eggs average a little 

 larger than the Red-heads, are a bright 

 greenish buff, while the eggs of the 

 Red-head are a creamy white color and 

 the shells closer grained and more 

 glossy. It is much easier to mark an 

 egg of the Canvas-back with a 

 lead pencil than it is to mark the Red- 

 head's egg. 



In four cases I found the Canvas- 

 back in possession of the nest 

 and in the other two cases the female 



