Among the Water Fowl 



tered by the reeds, she had built her nest of reed- 

 stems and grass, hned profusely with down plucked 

 from her breast, and laid nine fresh eggs of a yel- 

 lowish olive hue — my first Dakota Duck's eggs! 



I had already noticed a fine male Canvasback 

 swimming among some clumps of reeds, well out 

 in the water. I decided to wade there, letting the 

 boy beat along the shore. The Canvasback had 

 disappeared, but when I got out not far from where 

 I had seen him, I heard a sudden splashing and 

 beating of wings, and the same instant saw a large 

 Duck, that I recognized as a female Canvasback, 



fluttering over 

 the water ten or 

 fifteen yards 

 ahead of me. I 

 was soon there, 

 and found in a 

 little clump of 

 reeds a sort of 

 semi - floating 

 "ark of bul- 

 rushes," lined 

 with an abund- 

 ance of whitish 

 down, and ten large eggs of a sort of dark leaden 

 color, a hue produced by no bird but a Canvas- 

 back. This mother had begun her work earlier 

 than her Pintail neighbor, for her eggs seemed 

 considerably incubated. 



The weather cleared during the night, and the 

 next day, with a bracing northwest wind, we drove 

 thirty miles further to a fine large lake, and, pitch- 



176 



I WAS SOON THERE, AND FOUND IN A LITTLE CLUMP 

 OF REEDS A SORT OF SEMI - FLOATING 'ARK OF 

 BULRUSHES.' LINED WITH . , . WHITISH DOWN." 

 NEST OF THE CANVASBACK 



