218 



THJdi CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 



NOTES ON THE BREEDING OP THE 



RED-HEADED DUCK AT LAKE 



ST. CLAIR. 



Some of your read.ers are perhaps aware 

 that during the spring of 1882, Mr. Herbert 

 Keays and the writer were collecting specimens 

 of natural history at Mitchell's Bay, Ontario. 

 Perhaps some of the readers of this article 

 may have enjoyed themselves at the little 

 village of this name, as it is the resort of 

 numerous sportsmen during the shooting sea- 

 son. For the benefit of those who may not 

 have visited the spot, I will give a brief de- 

 scription of the localities in which we collected 

 the specimens I intend to describe. The 

 village is situated about half a mile from the 

 shore, and at about the same distance inland, 

 is a dense forest composed chiefly of elm and 

 other soft wood trees. Here the surface of the 

 ground is not more than three or four feet above 

 the level of the bay,but sloping gradually to the 

 water's edge. On the north and south of the 

 village the marsh extends much further from 

 the forests verge and partly encloses the body 

 of water known as " Mitchell's Bay," which is 

 about four miles in extent each way and very 

 shallow, being not more than ten feet deep 

 anywhere. The southern projection of marsh 

 is called " Big Point Preserve," the northern 

 boundary of the bay, " Mud Creek Preserve," 

 and extends to the " Sny" as the outlet of 

 Sydenham River is -called. The marsh be- 

 yond the river called " St. Ann's Island," is an 

 Indian Reserve, but is now leased and held as 

 a game preserve by a club of sportsmen. 

 Scarcely any part of this island or the adjoin- 

 ing marsh are much above the level of the 

 water, and wherever the water does not form 

 ponds, bays or channels, wild rice, coarse 

 grasses and rushes cover the flats in freshest 

 green. Amid the wiry grass, wild pea vines 

 twine and bloom and the surfaces of the 

 shallower pools are covered with the leaves of 

 lilies and other aquatic plants. During our 

 stay in this place we lived in a scow belonging 

 to Dr. Gamier of Lucknow, to whom I am 

 greatly indebted for many favours. My stay 

 in this delightful spot will ever be dear to 

 memory ; sitting at my work — at early lamp- 

 light — listening to the water-fowl and the 

 splashing of the waves against our scow. No 

 lover of nature could visit this spot during the 

 month of May or June without being impressed 

 by its ^beauties, and to us it was a collectors 

 paradise. There was not a moment of the day 



when the lively notes of some bird could not 

 be heard, and sometimes the noise was aston- 

 ishing; in the evening, when the sun was sink- 

 ing out of sight, perhaps a loon would start its 

 wailing cry and apparently, at once, every 

 feathered inhabitant of the marsh would join 

 with their own peculiar notes, but the Florida 

 Gallinule, GaUinula galatea, was by far the 

 most vociferous. Those who have never 

 heard such an uproar can scarcely understand 

 a written description. Imagine the music that 

 would be made by hundreds of gallinules 

 yelling on every side; the quacking of ducks, 

 piping of rails, crying of loons and the inde- 

 scribable notes of hundreds of marsh wrens, 

 coots and grebes ; the croaking of thousands 

 of bull-frogs to say nothing of the hum of 

 myriads of mosquitoes, and we find a din 

 unparalleled. The first nests and eggs 

 I shall describe are those of the Red-headed 

 Duck (Aethyia Americana). Early on the 

 morning of May 27th, we started in a canoe to 

 the southern extremity of St. Ann's Island in 

 search of nests. Mr. Keays was wading in 

 water too shallow to pole the canoe in ; I padd led 

 about until we took nest after nest of cocts, 

 gallinules, grebes, black terns, red-win ^s, 

 rails &c. A female red-head was then ob- 

 served by my friend, swimming quietly away 

 among the reeds ; he immediately started 

 to search for the nest, which he knew mugt 

 be near ; a few minutes later, my ears were 

 saluted by a shout that clearly indicated 

 success. I lost no time in reaching the place 

 and found him stooping over the nest and 

 handling the eggs in a perfect ecstasy of de- 

 light. The nest was placed in six or eight inches 

 of water, among coarse grass and flags, and 

 was composed of those weeds of the previous 

 year, very bulky, being about sixteen inches in 

 depth and diameter ; it was built abruptly out 

 of the water, except on one side which had a 

 regular slant of about a yard in length and 

 which led to a passage among the weeds going 

 to the open water. The internal diameter of nest 

 at top was nine inches and the depth five inches. 

 The eggs, ten in number, were of a bluish drab 

 colour ; they were uncovered when found, and 

 in an advanced state of incubation ; they varied 

 in size, measuring thus, If x 2 3-8, If x 2£, 

 1 11-16 x 2£, If x 2 7-16. While we were* 

 taking the eggs, the female duck came twice 

 and flew around us, and when we were a little 

 distance from the place she alighted in the 

 pond and swam rapidly to the nest ; we again 

 approached, when she took wing and in a few 



