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Contributed by Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library.
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Transcription
Clangula c.americana.
Lake Umbagog, Maine. Alertness.
1896.
June 5. As we neared the Lake I saw a Golden-eye fly from a hole
near the top of a very tall ash stub. Almost immediately af-
terwards two more Ducks of the same kind flew from stubs near the
one just mentioned but we did not accurately mark the start-
ing point of either. The hole in the tall stub was almost
perfectly round and so small that it seemed impossible for a
Duck to pass through it. It was fully 60 ft. above the water
and the tree was very rotten. All these Golden-eyes left
their nests when we were 100 yards or more away and making but
little noise. The first bird warned the others with her
croaking but how did she hear our approach? And how can a
Duck bring her young down from such a height and through such
a hole unless in her bill? A native of Upton who once lived
near the Narrows tells me that he saw a Goosander take her
young from a nest in a stub near his house to the water and
that she carried them one by one on her back! He further says
that the young repeatedly slipped off and that she recovered
them by turning over on her side and darting beneath them.
In one instance he saw this was done three times during the con-
veyance of one of the young.