. The oist . particular interested me forit held two young ones, of which onewas several days old while the otherhad just come out of the egg. Thepicture of this couple was really theonly one of any value that I secured,of the Gulls. In another nest I foundone young one dining on an alreadyhalf-eaten perch. On once being fedby hand he refused to touch the fishif it was put down. Therefore theonly thing left to do was to feed himuntil he was thoroughly satisfled. Ofthe other nests we found all but oneor two were empty, although a fewcontained rotten or deserted young that had left the
. The oist . particular interested me forit held two young ones, of which onewas several days old while the otherhad just come out of the egg. Thepicture of this couple was really theonly one of any value that I secured,of the Gulls. In another nest I foundone young one dining on an alreadyhalf-eaten perch. On once being fedby hand he refused to touch the fishif it was put down. Therefore theonly thing left to do was to feed himuntil he was thoroughly satisfled. Ofthe other nests we found all but oneor two were empty, although a fewcontained rotten or deserted young that had left the nestwould take to the water on a signalgiven by the old birds as soon as any-one was seen approaching. In thisway they would be out of sight be-fore you could arrive anywhere nearthem. Prom the fact that they set solow in the water it took a fleld glassto pick them out even though theywere not very far off shore. By goingout in a boat one could soon catch allhe desired. In this manner we ob- THE OOLOGIST 193. Nest of the Red-breasted Merganser on Goose Island in Lake Michigan —Photo, 1916, by Albert D. McGrew. 194 THE OOLOOIST tained five for photographic purposes,but after trying for more than halfthe day to catch them in natural pos-es had to give up in despair. The oldbirds were not very fearless in de-fense of their young as was shownwhen we went out in the boat, for theparent birds would merely scream ex-citedly when we picked their youngout of the water. Occasionally theywould scoop at us but never did anycome close. While tramping thru the thickgrass bordering a small bay on thesouth end of the island I flushed aduck of some sort from her nest. Asthe grass was so high I could onlyfollow the course she took by thewaving of the grass as she waddledtowards the water. Reaching theedge of the bay she plumped in, swamquietly thru the reeds, then patteredalong until she gained wing. Theview I had was sufficient to let meknow that it was a Red-breasted Mer-ganser. During the s
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