324 
ANAS ACUTA 
took wing again a few yards beyond. At this season they also have a habit of de- 
scending from a great altitude at an angle of about 45 degrees, with their wings stiffly 
outspread and slightly decurved. They are frequently so high that he has “heard 
the noise produced by their passage through the air for fifteen or twenty seconds 
before the birds came into sight. They descend with meteor-like swiftness, until 
within a few yards of the ground, when a slight change in the position of the wings 
sends the bird gliding away close to the ground for a hundred or three hundred yards 
without a single wing-stroke” (Nelson, 1887). 
It seems unnecessary to list here the hundreds of available nesting dates, for these 
are only of comparative value. The laying period is perhaps a w'eek later than that 
of the INIallard, and considerably earlier than that of the Gadwall, Widgeon, Blue- 
winged Teal and Garganey. In California, the southernmost breeding area in the 
New World, they begin laying late in April or early INIay, most clutches being com- 
plete by May 20 (Grinnell, Bryant and Storer, 1918). In North Dakota and south- 
ern Saskatchewan most clutches are full from early to late IVIay, and most young 
are hatched early in June (Bent, 1901-02; Ferry, 1910). In the Athabasca region, 
during the retarded season of 1920, males began to flock together by June 12, in- 
dicating that some females were incubating. Nests were found as late as the end of 
the month (Harper, MS.). In w^estern Alaska the breeding season is naturally some- 
what earlier, as early perhaps as middle to late May, but on the Arctic coast it is 
not at its height till the end of June. 
On Bering Island eggs are laid in late May (Bianchi, 1909), on the Wiljui eggs were 
taken June 18 (Maak, 1859), while on the lower Jana eggs were found early in June 
(von Bunge and von Toll, 1887). On the lower Petchora the first eggs were found on 
June 5 (Seebohm, 1885). In central Europe the laying period begins as early as the 
middle of April and extends through May, but in Finland June is the more usual 
month (Naumann, 1896-1905). Nesting in Scotland begins in the middle of May 
and probably extends through June. Laying takes place from the middle of May 
till the beginning of June in Iceland (Hantzsch, 1905). 
The nesting site is very similar to that chosen by other surface-feeding ducks. On 
our own prairies they sometimes select dry places as much as a mile from the nearest 
slough (Job, 1902; Rockwell, 1911). Bent (1901-02) found them more commonly in 
the vicinity of larger lakes. They are not particular about the location, and often nest 
near railroads and highways. One was found only eighteen feet from the main line 
of the Burlington Railroad in Colorado (Rockwell, 1911). They are so often placed 
at a distance from swamps that many are destroyed by mowing machines and they 
are often flooded out by irrigation dams, if they are placed too low. As many as ten 
or fifteen pairs have been found nesting in an area of eighty acres. 
There is nothing distinctive about the nest itself. The clutch averages somewhat 
less than that of the Mallard, numbering from five to twelve, ordinarily about eight. 
