THE OOLOGIST 



245 



she came off the nest, as the eggs 

 were not warm, but I do believe she 

 was sitting on a limb of the tree amid 

 the foliage, and that our presence 

 alarmed her, and she left. She made 

 no outcry or noise whatever, and I 

 saw no more of her. As she passed 

 from sight, two more ducks jumped up 

 out of the near by creek and flew off. 



did not see what species they were. 

 Alter some examination of the tree I 

 discovered the round knothole in the 

 broken end of this hollow limb. To 

 climb that tree did not take long, and 



1 soon peered all expectancy into that 

 hole. There in the bottom of a four 

 foot cavity, on a bed of rotted wood, 

 feathers and down from the old duck, 

 lay eleven yellowish colored eggs 

 that I at first took to be wood Duck 

 eggs. 



The stench from the nest was simp- 

 ly terrible, as I afterwards found, 

 from some broken eggs in there. The 

 tree was formerly a double one with 

 a fork about six feet from the ground, 

 but one of the trunks had long since 

 been cut or blew over, leaving the 

 stump all rotten and the half of the 

 tree containing the nest standing, a 

 gnarled, sprout covered specimen, 

 some thirty odd feet high. The limb 

 containing the nest left the tree on 

 the east side, the side away from the 

 creek and next the Heronry; and grew 

 at an angle of near fifty degrees 

 from the tree, had been broken off, 

 and the end sort of curled in, hav- 

 ing an opening seven inches across. 



This limb had a number of small 

 live branches growing from it. Direct- 

 ly at the nest this limb was nine 

 inches in diameter and it was four and 

 a half feet long. In the bottom of 

 the cavity I could see but eleven eggs. 

 There were twelve in fact there. I 

 took them to be Wood Duck's eggs be- 

 cause of their yellowish color. On 



cutting into the nest I found it was 

 composed of grass, chips, rotten wood 

 and down. The down was arranged 

 with the grass in a sort of a circle 

 around the eggs, the down lay on top 

 of the grass. The eggs rested on the 

 bits of rotten wood. There was no ef- 

 fort at nest building under the eggs, 

 and I think the circle of down and 

 grass was put there to keep the eggs 

 from coming in contact with the sides 

 of the nest or cavity where they might 

 chill. 



There were an even dozen eggs in 

 the nest, one evidently an old last 

 year's Wood Duck's egg, was broken 

 and had been for some time; hence 

 the awful smell in the nest. Each of 

 the two holes in this broken egg were 

 over a half inch in diameter and most 

 of the contents of the egg had run out 

 into the nest and with the mud from 

 the old bird's feet had discolored all 

 the eggs, so they were almost exact- 

 ly the color of the eggs of the Wood 

 Duck, and I took them home still sup- 

 posing they were of this species. The 

 broken egg I threw out and the other 

 eleven I lowered carefully to the 

 ground in my basket. 



Right under the tree I found an- 

 other broken Wood Duck's egg and 

 still another about a hundred yards 

 east of there on the ground. Both old 

 last year's eggs, and both broken. 

 Whether they had laid there since 

 the spring preceding or had been 

 tossed out of the nest by the Mergan- 

 ser, this season, I of course don't 

 know, but I incline to the latter theory, 

 because where I found them, the riv- 

 er overflows fully ten feet deep each 

 spring, and would certainly have float- 

 ed them off or covered them up with 

 mud if they had been there when the 

 river came up this spring. On blow- 

 ing the eleven eggs which I took home 

 with me, I found one of them to be 



