222 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVI 
extremely adept in catching the insects as dropped into the cage. The stom- 
achs of the young Pintails examined contained grass and other plant stems, 
seeds of filaree (Erodiuni) and certain other unidentified seeds in fragments. 
One stomach contained the remains of the pupa of some insect. 
Chaulelasmus streperus. Gadwall. Four nests of the Gadwall were 
found. From one of these the young had already hatched, and one of the 
others had been raided by some animal, probably a coon. On May 12 a female 
of this species was flushed from her nest which was situated in tall salt grass 
about fifteen feet from a small pond and lined with gray down. It contained 
nine cream-colored eggs. When flushed the duck gave a few quacks, dropped 
into the nearby pond and, swimming low in the water, quietly departed. Five 
days later the nest was destroyed by some animal. On a small island grown 
up with sweet clover and grass the fourth nest was found on May 16. This 
nest was constructed of the leaves of sweet clover mixed with dark gray down 
and was well concealed by the high growth. The outside diameter was 21 
inches and the inside 16 inches. The nest contained twelve slightly incubated 
eggs. No downy young were found by us. 
Besides the two birds which were flushed from their nests, not more than 
two or three other Gadwalls were identified with certainty in the field. Hence 
we must consider this species as comparatively uncommon during the nesting 
season in this vicinity. The number of nests found did not furnish in this case 
an adequate criterion of the number of nesting birds of the species. The birds 
when flushed remind one of Pintails but appear to be of stockier build and 
much shorter neck. The eggs differ from those of the other ducks found nest- 
ing at Los Banos in that they are of a distinct cream color. The stomach of 
one adult examined contained one earabid beetle and a quantity of grass 
blades. The stomach contents was very similar to that usually found in the 
Baldpate. 
Querquedula cyanoptera. Cinnamon Teal. Twenty-three nests of the 
Cinnamon Teal were found. Of this number eighteen were destroyed by some 
predaceous animal, and from three, the young had already hatched. This duck 
almost invariably chose for nesting sites small islands or the banks of ponds 
upon which grew either sedge or salt grass. A typical nest found on an islet 
in a marsh was well concealed in a patch of bunch-grass about a foot high. It 
was well lined with down in spite of the fact that the eleven eggs were fresh. 
Two other nests discovered, which were afterward destroyed through some 
agency, were exactly the opposite in respect to the equipment of down: one 
containing five eggs held no down as yet, the other containing but one egg 
showed a moderate lining of down. A nest found in a dense clump of tules at 
the edge of a pond contained one egg when first found. Pour days later the 
same nest contained five eggs, giving evidence that one egg is laid each day. 
It is interesting to note that two individuals of the same species will choose 
such different nesting sites as grassy islands and dense tules, and such differ- 
ent nesting materials as grass and tules. The choice of tules by Cinnamon 
Teal in the vicinity of Los Banos is certainly the unusual thing. 
The ineonspicuousness of a nest when covered with its blanket of down 
was significantly impressed upon us on returning to a nesting site we had pre- 
viously marked. Although we went directly to the small islet on which the 
nest was situated and looked carefully for the nest it took several minutes to 
descry it, and when found it was in exactly the position we had pictured it in 
our minds. The dusky-hued down of the Cinnamon Teal harmonizes wonder- 
