July, 1918 A RETURN TO THE DAKOTA LAKE REGION 135 



er of the year's nests the eggs were so high that my friend, tall as she was, 

 had to stand on tip toe to look in at them. A tree on the edge of the woods 

 above the water had its nest hole about ten feet from the ground, and the old 

 Golden-eye in taking out her young would start with wings spread, the dozen 

 or more yellow downy chicks on her back and, as 1 was told, "take a slant 

 right down to the water." Once when the old mother was startled, she made 

 a wrong curve and the little ones all fell off. As soon as they struck the ground 

 they ran and hid in the weeds, but as the onlookers stood still, the mother swam 

 circling around, calling to them, when they ran to the lake, and as soon as they 

 struck the water swam off, quite to the manor born. 



At Red Willow Lake some years before, the family were sitting close to 

 the nest tree of a Golden-eye, a tree that was close to the bank and leaned to- 

 ward the lake — when the brood was taken away, and a graphic description of 

 the departure was given me by one of the witnesses. "We heard an odd noise, 



part of it like the buzz of a bee, and K said 'Oh look, look, look!' and 



pointed, and we all looked up at the tree. The young were on her back as thick 

 as could be, her back was covered from her neck, she was all bushed out with 

 them. She seemed to start to sail down from the branches, not from the hole 

 — she had worked out from the nest to the branches with those little Ducks ! 

 Her wings were spread and she kept up that buzzing noise — we thought it 

 came from the old Duck ; the little ones couldn't make a noise : they were hang- 

 ing on. She just kind of sailed down to the water. It was worth seeing — to see 

 those little things!" the genial witness exclaimed, her kindly face all smiles. 

 "One little one slipped off," she went on, "and hung by one feather — it had its 

 little head up stretched out hanging onto the feather. About two feet from the 

 water, three or four dropped off — got tired and couldn't hang any longer. 

 When she struck the water they all just seemed to scatter— like a flash they 

 were all in the water — scattered in every direction. She began calling them 



then and we made a scurry down to look at them and K caught one and 



we all looked at it and then let it go. When we put the little one down it be- 

 gan to call and she called to it and — my, it scampered ! Then she got on the 

 other side of the reeds and it was no time before she had them gathered to- 

 gether. Then they'd swim around. They'd get tired and then they'd climb up 

 on her back — a whole bunch of them as if they got there to rest. ' ' 



Although I was too late to see the young at Stump Lake, when at Devil's 

 Lake an old Golden-eye several times brought her brood to the stones on the 

 beach below the house. The first time, she got there first and climbed up on 

 a stone and waited till the little brood swam in. One small duckling who was 

 behind the rest made a rush through the water and got ahead and climbed up 

 on the stone beside his mother with a pretty air of being glad to get back to 

 her. When the young were huddled together on one stone, their mother sat 

 on another, but when she became absorbed in preening herself — throwing up 

 her dark ball of a head showing her light throat, and rising till she showed 

 her white belly — the youngsters dropped off the rock into the water and dived 

 and swam — swam around at the foot of the rock and then went on along the 

 shore feeding partly from the surface, partly below. The next day a slight 

 noise from the water proved to be the ducklings chasing each other. The moth- 

 er sat on her stone letting them play, and two of them finally waddled up on a 

 second stone. But the Golden-eyes did not monopolize the stools. One day 

 when the old Duck sat on her stone and three of her ducklings each on his 



