Penobscot Bay, Maine.
1896
June 30
(no 2)
year but insasmuch as not a single Sheldrake was seen while we were 
approaching the island or for two or three hours after we had landed
my expectations were not high. I was consequently the more
delighted at having an opportunity of examining within the first
hour no less than six nests of this Merganser, five of them with
eggs. I found the first nest myself under a small stack of hay
which had been cut last year & which was elevated a foot or so above
the ground our poles supported by stakes. There was a space two or
three yards square with two small openings the hay having settled
to the ground elsewhere. In this space were about a dozen eggs (I
neglected to count them *) nearly all more or less broken, the contents
dried up, the shells badly stained. There were two clusters of 4 or
5 each & a yard or so apart with 3 or 4 eggs scattered about between
them. There was no down nor any signs of a nest the eggs simply
lying on a bed of hay.* Unquestionably they were all eggs of
M. serrator & presumably a Sheldrake laid them there but the
whole thing was involved in mystery. Conary thought they were
last year's eggs but unless the hay stack had been erected in 1894 this
could hardly be the case. At all events the eggs were worthless as
specimens & we left them untouched.
[margin]* On July 12th I examined these eggs more
closely. One of the clusters which I had supposed
contained only four or five eggs proved to have thirteen
many of which were covered with hay.There were at
last twenty-one eggs in all under this hay stack.[/margin]
[margin]* Only July 12th I [delete]found[/delete] examined one of
the clusters of eggs more carefully & found
beneath them a well defined nest
with quantities of the bird's down.
  Conary found the next nest, an empty one in a dense clump of beach
grass on the crest of the dyke. It was empty & apparently deserted
but the down mixed with the dry grass of which it was made
looked new & fresh. Probably some fisherman had robbed it.
  Watrons found the other four nests. The first in beach grass contained
six eggs which proved on blowing to have small, dead embryos. Four
of these eggs were badly stained inside. A yard from the nest we
found a seventh egg which must have belonged with the others. It
was broken in halves & the [?] half dried [?] the pebbles
beneath the shells. Some one had evidently found this nest before
our visit for a stout stake had been driven into the sand with 2 feet of it.