Identifier: amongwaterfowlob00job (find matches)
Title: Among the water-fowl; observation, adventure, photography. A popular narrative account of the water-fowl as found in the northern and middle states and lower Canada, east of the Rocky mountains
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Job, Herbert Keightley, 1864-1933
Subjects: Water birds Birds
Publisher: London, Wm. Heinemann
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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e waddled outpast me, almost brushing against me, then takingto wing, at length to drop into the lake and dive.The nest contained thirteen fresh eggs. Probably,as with most other Ducks on these islands andelsewhere, from eight to eleven is the ordinarynumber of eggs in the full complements. Onanother visit to these islands a friend of mine ac-tually caught a Scoter on her nest and obligedher to sit for her picture ere he restored her tofreedom. The next day I made a visit to the slough where,over a month before, I had seen so many kinds ofDucks. We had first to dig out a boat on the largelake, that a gale had nearly filled with gravel, ere wecouhi take it along with us on the buckboard. Therushes and grass had grown very high, and it wasnot as easy as before to see the Ducks, thoughthere were plenty of them. Here, at last, I foundmy first nest of the Ruddy Duck. It was a genu-ine floating structure, built out in the middle of theslough in deep water, with only a few stems of grass 194
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95 Among the Water Fowl near it for anchorage and shade. In location onlywas it like a Grebes nest, being dry, deep andbulky, though with little down. A recent storm,probably, had partly upset it, and several of thefifteen large white eggs were lying on the edge orspilled out into the water. It seemed almost im-possible that such a little bird as a Ruddy Duckshould have laid that pile of eggs, several times itsown weight, in less than three weeks. When I firstsaw a Ruddys eggs I could hardly believe they wereproperly identified, as they are larger than the eggsof the Mallard or the Canvasback. Canvasback, Redhead, and Ruddy Ducks can beclassed together in the nesting season. They allbuild elaborate nests in the rushes out over deepwater, and when one is found in a slough the othermembers of the triumvirate are also likely to occur.As though in proof of this, I saw, as I inspected thisnest, a female Canvasback, followed by eight young,swimming across the lane of water. Not far away,as

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