72 BIRDS 



during migration, but confines itself to the interior while 

 breeding. It is rarely found in northern Illinois and Indi- 

 ana, although a number of them have been taken at English 

 Lake, Indiana; Fox Lake, Illinois, and also at Lake 

 Koshkonong, Wisconsin. A few males were also observed 

 by the ^mter at Chillicothe, on the Illinois River. Its favor- 

 ite food grows in all these waters. 



The canvas-back is fairly common throughout the Devil's 

 Lake region of North Dakota, where it nests with the red- 

 head among the grassy sloughs and pot-holes, or on the 

 borders of marshy lakesides. 



One of the first duck's nests the writer ever found was 

 that of a canvas-back, while searching for American bit- 

 tern's eggs, in the latter part of May, 1900, near Sweetwater 

 Lake, North Dakota. 



The nest, about the size of a bushel basket, but with a 

 much smaller capacity, was securely anchored to several 

 large clumps of marsh grass, over water several feet deep. 

 It was a bulky affair, consisting of drj"^ grass and hay, 

 sparsely lined with down and feathers. An incomplete set 

 of four fresh eggs in the nest were partly concealed by the 

 wary female, which had attempted to cover them with down. 



In Northwest Canada, the canvas-back nests abundantly 

 in June, when it deposits from seven to twelve deep ashy- 

 green elliptical eggs. Incubated eggs of this species, like 

 the eggs of other Northern ducks, are usually surrounded 

 by a quantity of down, plucked from the female's breast. 

 The do^^Ti of the canvas-back is much darker than that of 

 the redhead, the latter having a grayish-white down, and the 

 canvas-back's being slaty-gray or mouse-color. 



