296 FEATHERED GAME 
when on their spring migrations, perhaps in 
consideration of the weaker powers of the 
young birds, or, having reared up their families, 
they feel that they have earned a vacation and 
so loiter by the way. 
Rarely this bird is taken in our coast waters 
during the winter months. It is mostly as a 
migrant that we see it, as but few birds of this 
species are believed to breed within our borders. 
Still a careful search in the marshes and 
swamps of our Maine lakes might perhaps 
prove it a prominent citizen of those parts. 
Its nest is made upon the ground and contains 
from eight to ten dingy buff-colored eggs. 
It is said that in the Delaware and Chesa- 
peake waters the Widgeon is something of a 
pirate—an unfailing and steady attendant on 
the canvasback, preying upon its hard-work- 
ing neighbor and depending upon it for the lux- 
uries and delicacies of the feeding ground, for 
the Widgeon not being an expert diver, and the 
canvasback feeding mostly on the roots and 
plants growing on the bottom,—especially the 
wild celery, of which all the duck family are 
very fond,—the Widgeon uses his neighbor’s 
