82 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



sometimes as many as twelve. They are huffish white or pale 

 reddish buff in ground colour, spotted and speckled with reddish 

 brown and gray. Some eggs are much more handsomely marked 

 than others. They measure on an average 17 inch in length by 

 I -2 inch in breadth. The hen sits closely, attended by the cock, 

 who takes the smaller share of incubation, which lasts from 

 about twenty to twenty-four days. When the sitting bird leaves 

 the nest, it covers the eggs with bits of vegetation, and though it 

 sometimes flies to and from the home, it usually slips quietly off 

 into the water. Several broods are reared in the year ; young 

 chicks have been found as late as the end of August. The 

 young, clothed in jet-black down,^ take to the water at once with 

 their parents, who often lead them to running streams near by. 

 They are well able to take care of themselves in the moment 

 of danger, and hide in holes and corners directly harm threatens 

 them. 



Diagnostic Characters. — GalHnula, with the general colour 

 above olive-brown, below slate-gray, shading into brown on the 

 flanks, which are broadly striped with white. Frontal plate, 

 scarlet; in young, greenish brown. Length, 13 inches. 



