BIRDS. 123 



little felloT\'s instantl}' swam close to her side. When thej' all swam on 

 together and we followed, though my quieting talk partly reassured 

 the anxious mother, her distress was so a])pealing that with a (juick 

 turn of the paddle I sent the boat out into the lake — to our mutual 

 relief. Feeling safe at last, the little ones strung out in single file 

 behind their mother, swimming slowly and contentedly along close to 

 shore. As we watched them, they seemed a fitting part of the peace- 

 ful sunset picture — the quiet lake over which the cool night air came 

 down from the mountains, the dark-spired shore line from which 

 came the vesper song of the thrush, and the sunset light above, fading 

 out on the snowy slopes of the peaks. 



The anxiety of the old duck had doubtless been partly due to tragic 

 experiences, for up the lake two broods were seen, one with 11 and one 

 with 12 young, while one w^as reported to us from Sun Camp with 14, 

 and the usual clutch ranges from 9 to 12. Four-footed prowlers had 

 perhaps troUed along the lakeshore by moonlight, in their turn hav- 

 ing to provide for hungry families waiting in some well-hidden den — 

 for so the world progresses. Broods of various ages as well as num- 

 bers were seen in the park, some just hatched, some fairly well grown, 

 while old ducks apparently only leaving their nests for a meal were 

 noticed at various places. One of these solitary ones flew up near the 

 head of Grinnell Lake one day, where it dived deep through the 

 green water. It was aggravating not to be able to follow the ducks 

 as they flew back down the lakes to their nests. What may have been 

 such a return home was happened on a year or so ago by Dr. Grinnell, 

 though he saw it at too great a distance to be sure. He writes, " I saw 

 a golden-eye that had been swinging about over the lake on the middle 

 fork of Swiftcurrent, fly over some dead, burned, pine timber on 

 Wilber Creek and stop before a large pine, where it hovered as a 

 barn swallow does before its nest, and then disappeared." 



At Sun Camp, one morning late in July, I was surprised to see a 

 golden-eye fly out over the lake below in large disturbed circles, and. 

 as a motor boat came noisily by, fly high up on the side of the cliff 

 below the chalet, acting strangely as if going to take refuge on the 

 rocky promontory. That same morning Mr. Bailey saw a flock of 

 thirty or fortv golden-eyes fly up past the chalet toward the upper 

 end of the lake, already gathered into a fall flock anticipating the 

 southward flight, although Dr. Grinnell found the ducks on the 

 Lower St. Mary among the last to leave. 



On April 22, 1918, when at Lake McDonald, among the golden- 

 eyes seen too far out to distinguish the species, Mr. Bailey saw one 

 small flock at the upper end of the lake so close in shore that with 

 the' <^lass he could distinctly see the crescent-shaped spots on the 

 cheeks of the two old males, which were in high breeding plumage. 



