August 3rd, when he was four, possibly five days old. He uttered his little quirt 

 and the buzzing sound without opening his mouth. The former he ceased to 

 make on August 4th and 5th, but the latter became louder and was uttered when 

 he ate and whenever his box was touched, whether he raised his head or not. 



He lacked regurgitated food and brooding, and every morning was so 

 dumpish that I feared he was about to die. But toward night he became as 

 lively and as hungry as ever. Yet he was not thriving as well as the one in the 

 nest and it was my plan to exchange the two — but he circumvented me. 



At first he was fed on the large caterpillars from a laurel oak; later, on 

 berries and the larvae from cabbages. He did not seem to relish water or the 

 vvrhite of egg and worked his bill and his black-tipped tongue as if trying to spit 

 it out. Flies were his specialty, so I secured a quantity which had been scalded 

 and emptied out of a trap. They were dry and hard, but after wetting them I 

 gave him all he wanted, which was as much as a large tablespoonful. That was 

 an unwise thing to do, but he was voracious. Next morning, August 6th, he was 

 only slightly more inert than usual, but could scarcely swallow a cabbage worm. 

 When given a little juice from blackberries, much to my surprise, he lay over 

 on his side and died. — And he had never opened his eyes on the troubles of this 

 world. 



Fulvous Xree-Duck {Dendrocygna hicolor) 



Range: Breeds from central California, middle-western Nevada, southern 

 Arizona, and central Texas south to the Valley of Mexico and Michoacan ; 

 winters from central California and central Texas to southern Mexico. 



The tree-ducks are tropical species, two of which, the black-bellied and the 

 fulvous tree-duck, extend their range into the United States. In this country at 

 least there is little to warrant the name of tree-duck, as the bird is no more 

 arboreal, if as much so, than the wood-duck. No doubt it alights in trees in 

 wooded districts, and very probably it occasionally nests in hollow trees, as do 

 several others of our ducks; more often, however, it nests on the ground for 

 the sufficient reason that much of the territory it inhabits is practically treeless. 

 The only place in which I ever saw this species was Washoe Lake, Nevada, and 

 there its habits are so similar to other ducks that frequent shallow lakes that 

 at first I hardly recognized it. It is much more numerous in southern California 

 than in Nevada, but migrates farther south in winter. This duck is credited 

 with laying an unusually large clutch of eggs, from fifteen to thirty, but very 

 probably the larger number is the result of two or more females laying in the 

 same nest on a cooperative basis. 



619 



