THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



71 



Gray Hawk, ' ' and from his description of 

 the bird, together with the egg being pale 

 bluish-white without spots, there was no 

 doubt but this was a nest of the American 

 Goshawk. I have in my collection three 

 clutches of eggs that were taken in Mani- 

 toba and Assiniboia. All the eggs are pale 

 bluish-white without spots, and average 

 2.35x1.75. 



I visited the nest of the Swainson's Buz- 

 zard found two days previously and took 

 from it two eggs. 



Also found two Flickers' nests, one with 

 four and the other seven eggs, and a clutch 

 of four eggs of the Western Vesper Spar- 

 row. 



In a bluff in the sandhills I flushed a 

 Gray RufiQed Grouse off its nest and eight 

 fresh eggs. The nest was simply a hollow 

 in the ground, lined with leaves, and shel- 

 tered by a shrub. The eggs are a rich 

 pinky buff, finely spotted with brown. The 

 eggs of this variety of Ruffled Grouse are 

 rare in collections, but the species is com- 

 mon about the sandhills south of Oak Lake, 

 and in the evening on ray way back to the 

 village I heard the male birds drumming in 

 all directions in the bluffs. 



The following day I spent collecting 

 small birds, which were migrating north- 

 ward, and in the evening I packed up and 

 took the train westward 300 miles to Rush 

 Lake, arriving there the following day. 

 My friend Spalding was at the station to 

 meet me, and I left my canoe and baggage 

 for the cowboys to take up to the farm on 

 the hillside, while Spalding took me along 

 the railway track to show me a Pintail 

 Duck's nest. On reaching the place the 

 female flew off the nest, which contained 

 nine eggs partly incubated. The nest was 

 only some thirty feet from the railway track 

 in a plowed furrow of the fire guard. We 

 walked around a small slough down on the 

 .flats below the farm, where we startled a 

 Shoveller out of the grass, and advancing, 

 my eyes were soon gazing on eight eggs 

 snugly laid on a delicious bed of down. 

 Close to the nest was a Buffalo skull, so I 



did not molest the nest, intending to visit 

 the spot later and photograph the nest and 

 the skull. On our way to the house we 

 flushed a Meadowlark and found its nest 

 and five eggs, and also found a nest of 

 that rare bird, Baird's Sparrow, cotitaining 

 two eggs and three of the Cowbird. 



After dinner I again descended to Rush 

 Lake Flats, where I found birds very plen- 

 tiful. Swimming about the sloughs were 

 numerous Wilson's Phalaropes, Baldpates, 

 Teals, Shovellers, Pintails, Lesser Scaup 

 Ducks, Sora Rails and other water birds. 

 Ducks usually make their nests on the dry, 

 elevated parts of the swamps, so that there 

 is no risk of the water rising and destroy- 

 ing their nests. They never build nests 

 like the Coot and Grebe floating on the 

 surface of the water. Very few collectors 

 have probably had the opportunities of ex- 

 amining as many Ducks' nests as myself, 

 and my experience has been that all the 

 Duck family select the dry portions of the 

 prairie to nest, sometimes a considerable 

 distance from water. A friend of mine 

 went after Ducks' nests in a canoe, and 

 after four days' hard work hunting amongst 

 the rushes, he had not fallen in with a sin- 

 gle duck's nest, although he had collected 

 score of Coot's, Rail's and Grebe's. I wrote 

 to him to search the dry portions around 

 the sloughs, and he had better success. 



I found a nest of the Greater Scaup Duck 

 containing ten eggs, and also startled a 

 Wilson's Phalarope out of the grass, and 

 soon found its four heavily-spotted eggs. 

 I spent the evening looking for nests about 

 the stables and cow-sheds, and found nests 

 and eggs of Say's Pewee, Cliff and Barn 

 Swallow. 



May 26 — Spent the day on Rush Lake 

 Flats and found nests and eggs of Wilson's 

 Phalarope, Shoveller Pintail, Sora Rail, 

 Red-winged Starling, and other common 

 marsh birds. The mosquitoes were a ter- 

 ror, but, fortunately, I had netting over 

 my head and shoulders, but yet they stung 

 me through my gloves and trousers. I ob- 

 served several pairs of Marbled Godwits, 

 which evidently had nests, but this is a 

 very wary bird, and the female is up and 

 off her nest long before the intruder is any- 

 where near the spot. 



{To be Continued.) 



