163 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Red-head left the nest at my approach. 

 In the case of the nest of 19 eggs, four 

 Red-head's and one Canvas-back's, the 

 eggs were lying in the water close to the 

 nest and the nest looked as if the Ducks 

 had been fighting for possession of 

 the same. 



My brother tells me that the Canvas- 

 back and Red-head verj^ often 

 are seen together during the nesting 

 season around the nest and he is satis- 

 fied that they sometimes mate. He has 

 frequently watched the nest from the 

 time the eggs were laid until the young 

 brood left the home and the female 

 duck, a Red-head, was sometimes accom- 

 panied by the Canvas-back male. Of 

 course these Ducks are very common in 

 this locality and naturally would often 

 be seen together, whether they inter- 

 breed or not will have to be solved by 

 some one who has more time to study 

 their nesting habits than my brief visit 

 would allow. However, there is not a 

 doubt but that the two different Ducks 

 eggs are found in the same nest. The 

 half-breeds told me that the Red-head 

 female Duck stole eggs from other 

 bii'ds and placed them in her own nest, 

 this story I very much doubt, neverthe- 

 less there may be some truth in the 

 story. Can any of the Oologist readers 

 enlighten me on this question?! can find 

 no mention of the matter in any ornith- 

 ological publication in my possession. 



The Phalaropes were veiy common all 

 around the marsh and 1 must have seen 

 at least five hundred birds in the differ- 

 ent flocks. I now had all the eggs I 

 could carry and started back for the 

 house. I found three Horned Grebes 

 nests on my way home, one containing 

 four eggs, another containing three and 

 two more contained one egg each. 

 The season was evidently too early for 

 full clutches of this bird's eggs. Short- 

 ly after one o'clock I arrived at the 

 house and after a hearty dinner I blew 

 the eggs and washed the same carefully 

 and made datas for each set. 



My brother then hitched a horse to 

 the buck board and we started north- 

 west over the prairies to look for 

 Hawks, Plovers and Sparrows nests. 

 I found two nests of the Swainson's 

 Hawk but no eggs were in them al- 

 though the birds were in the vicinity of 

 the nest. 



The season was too late for fresh 

 eggs of the Ferruginous Rough-legged 

 Hawks. I found three different nests, 

 two placed on willow trees and one on 

 a poplar. Two of the nests were with- 

 in four feet of the ground and the other 

 was about twelve feet up. The first 

 contained four young and one egg anr] 

 the next had five young, the last three 

 young. In each case the female was 

 on the nest and the male close by on 

 the ground or flying overhead. The 

 male is a much darker bird than his 

 wife and they are both very large and 

 handsome. I very often watched them 

 stand on the ground close to a hole 

 waiting for the gopher to make his ap- 

 pearance. In every case where I climb- 

 ed to a nest containing young there 

 were from one to three remains of this 

 unfortunate animal. Very often their 

 skins were used as a lining for the 

 nests. The nests are huge ones built of 

 sticks, sods, etc. and lined with pieces 

 of rabbit's and gopher's fur, grass and 

 feathers. Birds are very quiet and 

 make little noise when one approaches 

 their nest. I found a nest of the White- 

 rumped Shrike containing three eggs 

 which was placed in a willow tree 

 three feet up, female was quite pugnac- 

 ious and flew close to my face during 

 the time I was examing the eggs. After 

 a long drive north to the heavy timber 

 I made a careful search for a couple of 

 miles and flushed a few Grouse and 

 Ducks, but found no nests, so turned 

 the horse in the direction of the house. 

 Field Plovers and Killdeers were plen- 

 tiful but I did not make any effort to 

 find their nests. 



After I aiTived at the house I took 



