32 
ANAS BOSCHAS 
been found from May 26 to July 18, and in Iceland not before the middle of May, 
There are many records of young broods seen as late as August and September but 
these are no doubt due to the destruction of an earlier clutch or brood. It is interest- 
ing to speculate on how the female secures a mate for these late broods, for the sex 
organs of males are supposed to stop functioning by late May, and she can hardly be 
expected to find her first mate after the young are hatched. 
The Mallard usually nests on the ground near the water, but in many cases nests 
have been placed far from the water. In Europe so many nests have been found in 
elevated locations such as in trees or on rocks that it can scarcely be regarded as a 
rare occurrence, but I know of only four authentic instances of such nests having 
been discovered in America. Nelson (1887) found one in the top of a hollow stump 
six feet above the ground, in Alaska, and in Oregon one was found in a crow’s nest 
in a willow eight feet high (Walker, 1914). Another was on the trunk of an ash tree 
in the W’illamette Valley (Murie, 1913) and a fourth in a willow tree in Saskatche- 
wan, Canada (Report Chief Game Guardian, Prov. Saskatchewan, 1920, p. 15). 
There appears to be no authentic record of any tree-nesting in India (Baker, 1908). 
It is possible to mention only a few of the unusual sites that fill the pages of orni- 
thological literature. Millais (1902) reports one taken on the summit of one of the 
highest mountains of Perth. Elsewhere in Scotland nests have been found high and 
dry in the hilly regions of that country. Others have been found in deep forests. In 
the State of Washington they are said to be frequently placed at the base of a giant 
tree, like the nest of the Sooty Grouse (W. L. Dawson and Bowles, 1909). When nest- 
ing in trees the deserted homes of other species are usually utilized. Ordinarily these 
nests are at no great distance from the ground, but Yarrell (1856) speaks of one in an 
oak tree twenty-five feet high, and W. Thompson (1851) mentions one in a silver fir 
eighty or ninety feet above the ground. In Bavaria one nested in the deserted nest 
of a Peregrine Falcon eighteen meters from the ground. The tree nests of crows, 
magpies, storks, and the ground nests of coots have been frequently mentioned. 
Pollard willows are selected more commonly than other trees. More unusual still are 
such sites as those on old towers, castles and walls (Ussher and Warren, 1900) and 
even the thatched roofs of deserted cottages (Taczanowski, 1893). Squirrel cotes 
have been used in Bohemia (Tschusi zu Schmidhoffen, 1890, p, 248). In Hungary, 
Mallards are said to nest in the burrows formed by the upturning of the turf during 
irrigation work (Homeyer, Naumann, 1896-1905). Wiistnei (1900) and others 
have called attention to nests that have been found in the immediate vicinity of 
inhabited fox-burrows. 
Mention has already been made of the faet that Mallards will breed at high al- 
titudes. In Turkestan they were found nesting at altitudes of from 6000 to 8000 
feet (Lansdell, 1885), 9000 feet in Colorado (Rockwell, 1908), 6225 feet in California 
(Grinnell, Bryant and Storer, 1918), nearly 6000 feet in Switzerland (Fatio, 1904), 
