592 



Golden-eye, but softer. The flesh of this bird is fishy and unpalatable. I have eaten it on 

 several occasions, but, I need scarcely say, only when I could get nothing better, though the 

 fishermen's wives used to prepare them in such a way as to make as dainty a dish as could be 

 made out of them. 



I am indebted to Mr. Arthur C. Stark, one of the best field-naturalists and observers I have 

 ever known, for an opportunity of examining undoubted specimens of the eggs of this Duck, and 

 also for the following notes, viz. : — " When travelling up the Mississippi river, 'above St. Paul, 

 Minnesota, towards the end of April 1872, we noticed numerous flocks of Buffel-headed Ducks 

 on most of the small lakes between St. Paul and St. Cloud. At this season the ground was still 

 frozen hard, and the larger lakes were partially covered with ice. On leaving St. Cloud we 

 struck north-west, and I lost sight of these Ducks until the end of May. We were then camped 

 by a lake near Fort Pomme de Terre, in West Minnesota, on which were several male Buffel- 

 heads. This lake was separated from a large alkaline lake by a ridge partly covered with a 

 thick growth of oak trees. On the 27th of May, whilst looking for nests of Tinnunculus 

 sparverius, my brother saw a small Duck fly from what appeared to be a Woodpecker's hole, 

 about twenty feet from the ground, in an oak tree. Three days later I went with him to the 

 spot ; and on knocking the tree a Duck struggled out of the hole, dropped straight down to 

 within a foot of the ground, and then flew off" into the thickest part of the wood, dodging 

 between the close-growing trees with astonishing rapidity, until stopped by a lucky snap shot. 

 On climbing to the hole from which the Duck had come I found it communicated with a good- 

 sized hollow, near the extremity of a broken limb. On the opposite side was another entrance ; 

 but both were quite small, not exceeding three inches in diameter. The one from which we 

 saw the Duck fly was evidently the work of a Woodpecker, probably Colaptes auratus. The 

 hollow was only a few inches deep, and was partly filled with decayed wood. On this lay eight 

 eggs nearly buried in down. At the time I did not know that Clangula albeola was a nester in 

 trees, and, never having killed the female of this Duck before, was rather puzzled as to what nest 

 we had obtained. On referring to Baird's ' Birds of America ' some time after, I found that it 

 was that of a veritable Buffel-head. The stomach of this Duck was completely crammed with 

 small red worms." 



Mr. Stark has kindly sent me the bird, eggs, and down for examination, the first of which I 

 have figured. The down is soft in texture and greyish white in colour ; and the eggs, which are 

 about the size of those of the common Teal, are creamy white with a greyish olivaceous tinge, 

 and show a pale greenish tinge when held up to the light. These eggs confirm the accuracy of 

 the following notes respecting the eggs of this Duck, sent to me by Dr. T. M. Brewer, of Boston. 

 " This Duck," he writes, " breeds in New Brunswick and Northern Maine, and also in Northern 

 Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, though not so commonly as has been stated. Nearly all the 

 eggs purporting to be of this species and doing duty as such in cabinets, really belong to the 

 common Green-winged Teal. The presence of buffy white, and the absence of a shade of green 

 when held to the light, will always detect the error. It probably breeds also in the high parts of 

 Colorado ; but of this I have as yet no positive evidence. It nests, whenever possible, in the 

 hollow a of tree or stump. One found by Mr. Lockhart contained nine eggs, and was in a low 

 rotten stump ; another, in a tall poplar tree, twenty feet from the ground, contained ten eggs. 



