Wild-Fowl of Wild-Fowl 



other islands. I had seen some of the birds and 

 was prepared for what now took place. Up flut- 

 tered a thick-set brown Duck, with white wing-bars, 

 from the grass a 

 couple of yards 

 up from the 

 shore. It was 

 unmistakably a 

 Scaup, and a 

 large specimen 

 at that. In a 

 typical, well-con- 

 cealed, down- 

 lined nest were 

 nine large, dark 

 brown eggs. 

 Their size, meas- 

 uring from two 

 and a half to two 

 and six-tenths inches in length, made it sure that 

 they belonged to the Greater Scaup. According to 

 the books, none of the Scaups had been known to 

 nest on the Atlantic coast. 



The fisherman affirmed that Teal of both kinds 

 nested on the islands. For a time it seemed that 

 all my arduous wading and tramping would fail to 

 verify this. But on the afternoon of June i6, as I 

 was wearily dragging my heavy boots along the 

 edge of a slough, something suddenly went flap- 

 ping over the grass, out from under a projecting 

 spruce-bough that sprawled flat on the ground, on 

 which I had almost trodden. It was a female Blue- 

 winged Teal. I lifted the bough, and there were 



209 



IN A TYPICAL, WELL-CONCEALED, DOWN-LINED NEST 

 WERE NINE LARGE DARK BROWN EGGS," NEST OF 

 GREATER SCAUP, MAGDALEN ISLANDS. "ACCORD- 

 ING TO THE BOOKS. NONE OF THE SCAUPS HAD 

 BEEN KNOWN TO BREED IN EASTERN NORTH 

 AMERICA" 



