Outing . either in pairs or parties of maleswhose mates were incubating somewhere—how I wished I knew definitely!There were pintails, mallards, shovel-lers, lesser scaups or broadbills, green-winged and blue-winged teal in fairnumbers. I saw also several gadwallsor gray ducks, and one beautiful malebaldpate or American widgeon. Theducks of the canvasback type prefer thedeeper reedy sloughs. Here and there on the marsh weresmall wooded islands or bluffs, cov-ered with poplar, oak, or spruce. Onone of these we noticed a hollow stub,and found in it, down almost to theground, seven large green egg
Outing . either in pairs or parties of maleswhose mates were incubating somewhere—how I wished I knew definitely!There were pintails, mallards, shovel-lers, lesser scaups or broadbills, green-winged and blue-winged teal in fairnumbers. I saw also several gadwallsor gray ducks, and one beautiful malebaldpate or American widgeon. Theducks of the canvasback type prefer thedeeper reedy sloughs. Here and there on the marsh weresmall wooded islands or bluffs, cov-ered with poplar, oak, or spruce. Onone of these we noticed a hollow stub,and found in it, down almost to theground, seven large green eggs of theAmerican golden-eye or whistler, a mostinteresting duck which I desired partic-ularly to study. A few rods fartheron was another low stub with eight eggsof this species, and in another bluff, amile farther, we found another set ofseven. On our return we learned thatJoseph had found us ten more golden-eyes eggs, in a stub at the edge of thepoplar forest back of camp. It was cer- [519] 520 OUTING. YOUNG GOLDEN-EYE, NEARLY FLEDGED, SHOWING LAST TRACE OF THE WHITE DOWNY PATCH ON FACE talnly golden-eye day. We did notfind any more ducks nests this time,though once I thought I had. Suddenlya large bird jumped from the grass rightb&tween my feet, and went springingand running away through the grass andweeds. It proved to be a sharp-tailedgrouse or prairie chicken and a nest withthirteen eggs. Two days later, as we returned lateat night from a long, interesting boattrip away up the lake, we learned thatthe half-breeds had sent over word thatthey had found a number of canvasbacknests, and that some of the eggs werenearly hatched, so we had better comeright away. The weather next day wasthreatening, but we dared not on the marsh, our guide firsttook me to a pintails nest, eight eggs,on a little island in the marsh, justback from the edge. At this time thewind suddenly backed from southeast tonortheast, piping up harder every minute,and starting into rain. In half a
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade, booksubjectsports, booksubjecttravel
