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THE CONDOR 
Vol. XIII 
the Barr chain of lakes in goodly numbers, and that the few nests examined by us 
were but a part of the total number. 
The Redheads’ nests, like those of the teal, exhibited a wide variation in 
structure and location. The first two nests were found June 10, 1906. These, 
containing five fresh eggs and nine incubated eggs, respectively, were within two 
feet of each other, in burrows in the top of a large musk-rat house at the edge of a 
small lake, in a sparse growth of cat-tails. The birds had burrowed in about eighteen 
inches, lined the cavity with down, and deposited the eggs at the end of the cavity. 
A careful examination of all the musk-rat houses seen ( and they were so conspicu- 
ous that in all probability none was overlooked) during the balance of 1906 and 
the full nesting seasons of 1907 and 1908, failed to reveal any other similarly lo- 
cated nests of this species. 
Fig. 64. NEST .A.ND EGGS OF C.\NVASB.-\CK IN BURROW IN SIDE OF MUSKR.'\T HOUSE 
On May 31, 1907, we found a beautiful set of eleven fresh eggs in a large, 
bulky nest somewhat resembling an overgrown nest of the coot, but much less 
compact and not so neatly cupped or lined as the average coot’s nest. There was 
little or no downy lining in the nest which was built in an average growth of cat- 
tails over about eighteen inches of water, and some twenty yards from the open 
water of the lake. There was no apparent attempt at concealment, and it was very 
conspicuous owing to its large size. The female flushed wildly, with a good deal 
of noise, when we were fully forty yards from the nest thus attracting our atten- 
tion to it. Eight of the.se eggs hatched on or about June 20, the remaining three 
being addled. 
