brood of 1910 was observed by me for four days, and 

 it is my opinion now that they also fell on the ground 

 and not into the water. 



There are a few bushes under the tree, but in gen- 

 eral the ground is covered with grass which is kept 

 fairly close by cattle, and is very similar in character 

 to that of any ordinary grazed meadow. The first 

 bird that fell while we were under the tree struck 

 fairly on the smooth ground and the fall of the other 

 was partly broken by one of the bushes. I think it 

 quite certain that they had received no food up to this 

 time, for I had been at the Club House directly across 

 the river for a week and had not before seen the old 

 bird and if she had been feeding the j'oung her doing 

 so could not have escaped my attention. 



ISTuttall wrote of his chasing and capturing in 1832 

 a young bird of this species on the Susquehanna River 

 not larger than a goose egg, which he described as 

 generally gray with a rufus head and neck and the 

 rudiments of a growing crest. This description was 

 quoted by Audubon, and later by Baird, Brewer & 

 Ridgway, j^et it hardly agrees with the two I captured. 

 These were greyish black on the back and white below. 

 The little wings showed the white patch of the species 

 and there was a spot of white in the dark color of 

 each side of the body above the legs. The head 

 showed the rufus distinctly only around the sides of 

 the neck, and it was not clearly defined as to outline. 

 The grey of the back extended over the top of the 

 head but was there slightly more brownish and I 

 could observe no indication of a crest. 



23 



