76 



THE OOLOGlSt 



rootlets, grass stems and lined with 

 finer grasses. 



Found abandoned nest and two eggs 

 of Indigo Bunting and one of Cowbird, 

 one egg punctured and one cracked. 



NESTING OF THE BUFFLE-HEAD. 



It was late in May that I found my 

 first nest of the Buffle-head Duck. The 

 place Central Saskatchewan, on the 

 shores of a small lake, not named on 

 the maps, but locally known as Island 

 Lake. It was about two p. m. on the 

 26th day of May, 1905. I was on busi- 

 ness of a more serious nature than the 

 mere search for eggs, — hiking to the 

 store at Mistiuwasis after bacon, tea, 

 salt, etc. My companion and I were 

 out of grub — we had plenty of ducks 

 and fish, but nothing to fry them with, 

 and boiled duck and fish had com- 

 menced to pall on the appetite. It 

 was like the expression I once heard 

 a grafter make at a street fair, "Wife 

 and babies at home starving to death 

 and nothing to eat but pie." It was an 

 eighteen mile walk but I was hungry 

 enough for season food to eat the 

 nails out of a salt barrel. I almost 

 passed this line stump too. With only 

 a few miles to travel I made a short 

 cut through a tamarac swamp and on 

 the edge of the lake about fifty yards 

 from the shore a dead Aspen was 

 standing among the small bushes, 20 

 feet up was a larger cavity of the 

 Flicker. I rapped mechanically on the 

 trunk and out went the swiftest fiying 

 machine I had ever seen move. A 

 duck, but what species I could not 

 say. A hurried climb and a huffy egg 

 was brought into view. It appeared 

 fresh and nine more could be felt 

 among the down 12 inches below the 

 opening. I had no gun with me, so 

 borrowed one from the owner of the 

 store and returned a few hours later, 

 but although I had a clear shot and 

 believe I had a good gun, I registered 

 a good miss. 



I returned to the nest two days later 

 on the 28th of May with my own gun, 

 and with a second shot tumbled over 

 Mrs. Buffle-head. No more eggs had 

 been laid and the ten proved but 

 slightly incubated and were certainly 

 a beautiful set when cleaned and 

 blown. 



Among the mass of light colored 

 down a few flicker feathers were 

 mingled, likely from some brood of 

 former years. The second set of this 

 species was taken one hundred miles 

 northeast of Mistawasis near Mon- 

 treal Lake on June 10th. This nest 

 vraT alro in a dead Aspen or Poplar 

 nest the shore of a small pond. This 

 tree was standing in the mo3t treach- 

 erous ground, I have ever been on. 

 Up to my hips in mud. In just such a 

 phice an the plate "Taking a set of 

 Buifled-head Duck's eggs. Alberta, 

 Jrne, 1906," in the May, 1909 OOLO- 

 GIST suggests. The cavity was also 

 the work of a Flicker fifteen feet up 

 and two feet from the broken off top. 

 It also contained ten eggs about one- 

 half incubated laying among the down 

 ten inches below the opening. It was 

 unnece:sary to shoot the female this 

 time, as I was commencing to be an 

 old hand at the game. The sets have 

 passed out of my hands and are in two 

 different collections in old England. 



As to swiftness on the wing this 

 Duck is second to none and for beauty, 

 it has the V/ood Duck backed off the 

 boards, and the books say it is unex- 

 celled by any other duck on the water 

 and in diving, so that this species, I 

 believe, should have first place among 

 the ducks. These tv/o nests were the 

 only evidence of this Duck's breeding 

 that I found, although I ran across a 

 number of male Buffle-heads, silently 

 fishing in the sheltered coves of dif- 

 ferent lakes. Likely the females were 

 dutifully incubating their eggs not far 

 away, 



W- H. Bingaman, 



