5 
\ 
Clangula clangula amerioana . 
Lake Umbagog, Maine. 
1897. compounded and perhaps the usual number laid by one bird does 
June 3. not exceed eight or nine. It would be interesting to learn 
whether or no the labor of incubation is fairly divided and 
also if all the young are cared for by one parent. The mys¬ 
terious disappearance of four of the eggs from the nest 
watched this morning suggests that they may have been hatched 
and the young have been taken away by another bird. 
Of another thing I am pretty well satisfied, via. that 
the Whistler is often polygamous. I have seen here this season 
only four drakes (one near the nest at Peaslee's crook with a 
single female (we saw only one), one at Tidswell's Point with 
<n S 
four females, one at the Outlet with at least five A females^) 
to at least twenty and probably thirty females. 
Watrous thinks that the number of eggs in a nest corres¬ 
ponds pretty closely with its capacity and I believe that he 
is right. When the cavity is small at the bottom the bird 
that takes possession of it fills it with her own set. When 
it is large other Whistlers and occasionally a Merganser, also 
lay in it until it can hold no more eggs. John Brown of Up¬ 
ton tells me that he once took 21 eggs from a Goosander's nest. 
On first visiting the Ytaistler's nest this morning I took 
one of the young and sent it to the boat by Gilbert intending 
to return it to the iiext after breakfast, but the sudden 
