Fulica americana 544 July 7 Lake Temescal 420ft, Alameda Co., Calif. her breast and belly feathers while on the ramp, perhaps to free her of all water so as to not dampen the egg and cool them. It always takes out 1 minute for a bird to get properly set to incubate. 12:45 the M♂ still is trying to distract the SE♀ when he attacks her but she is not particularly successful. 12:50 p.m., the SE♀ is at work chasing Ruddy and Mallards out from the J8 area. 3 young boys fooling around close to the K7.17 nest did not cause the SE♀ to get off the nest. About 1:15 she did get off the nest when some older fellows were nearby. 1:18 p.m. the ♂ is coming on the nest and settled by 1:19 p.m. Checked H7.24, I6.1, †6.18, J6.7 all normal in good repair. platform L4.3 is going to pieces, but may still be in use, if as nothing is being added to it. 1:55 p.m. - SE♀ was on nest, SE♂ at & K6.1 feeding. The deal at P16.4 is composed almost entirely of the leaves of the green cat-tails I broke down so I could observe nest P16.2 from shore. Most of these leaves are still attached to their bases, maybe all of them are. A new platform at P23.15 - maybe an E pair structure or may be a Ruddy affair, I'll have to see. Once a couple of the E birds were chasing a young Ruddy Duck at about W14 - it tried to escape -