178 
THE CONDOR 
VoL XV 
on climbing, found five eggs. 
While I was up at the crow’s 
nest the mallard duck and her 
mate both circled about above 
me, “quack-quacking” anxiously 
as they saw me perched so con- 
spicuously in the tree top. This 
was the first time I had seen the 
drake at all and from their ac- 
tions I concluded the eggs must 
be about ready to hatch. As I 
was leaving the slough bank I 
saw them both swimming to- 
gether a short distance off, wait-- 
ing to see if I would not go 
away. 
I fully intended to watch faith- 
fully from now on and visit the 
nest each day, on the chance that 
I might be on hand when the 
young were hatched out and 
ready to descend from the tree. 
But something detained me each 
day, until it was May 8 before 
I again went to Columbia 
Slough. 
Not far from the nest tree 1 
flushed the drake from a little 
pond in the nearby pasture. The 
ducks were evidently still in the 
neighborhood. I approached the 
Fig.SO. Nest AND Eggs OF Mallard ON Tree Trunk tree cautiously but could see 
nothing on the nest, even when 
within fifteen feet of it. I knew the mallard would not sit so close before, and 
when I climbed to the nest my fears were realized. I was just too late! There 
were the empty egg shells. Probably not far away were nine mallard ducklings, 
swimming and diving, not worrying in the least about how they got there. 
CALL-NOTES AND MANNERISMS OF THE WREN-TIT 
By J. GRINNELE 
( Contribution from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of California ) 
1 WAS AROLISED to the point of assembling the facts for the present sketch 
by reading an account of the notes and habits of the Wren-tit in a certain 
popular book on California birds. The account referred to was so at vari- 
ance with my own impressions of the bird in question that it led me to wonder 
