, and can run with a good deal of
speed, or dive if forced to do so, though it never dives for food. It
feeds on seeds of grasses, fibrous roots of plants, worms, shell fish,
and insects. In feeding in shallow water the bird keeps the hind part of
its body erect, while it searches the muddy bottom with its bill. When
alarmed and made to fly, it utters a loud quack, the cry of the female
being the louder. "It feeds silently, but after hunger is satisfied, it
amuses itself with various jabberings, swims about, moves its head
backward and forward, throws water over its back, shoots along the
surface, half flying, half running, and seems quite playful. If alarmed,
the Mallard springs up at once with a bound, rises obliquely to a
considerable height, and flies off with great speed, the wings producing
a whistling sound. The flight is made by repeated flaps, without
sailing, and when in full flight its speed is hardly less than a hundred
miles an hour."

Early in spring the male and female seek a nesting place, building on
the ground, in marshes or among water plants, sometimes on higher
ground, but never far from water. The nest is large and rudely made of
sedges and coarse grasses, seldom lined with down or feathers. In rare
instances it nests in trees, using the deserted nests of hawks, crows,
or other large birds. Six or eight eggs of pale dull green are hatched,
and the young are covered over with down. When the female leaves the
nest she conceals the eggs with hay, down, or any convenient material.
As soon as hatched the chicks follow the mother to the water, where
she attends them devotedly, aids them in procuring food, and warns
them of danger. While they are attempting to escape, she feigns
lameness to attract to herself the attention of the enemy. The chicks
are wonderfully active little fellows, dive quickly, and remain under
water with only the bill above the surface.

On a lovely morning, before the sun has fairly indicated his returning
presence, there can be no finer sight than the hurrying pinions, or
inspiring note than the squawk, oft repeated, of these handsome
feathered creatures, as they seek their morning meal in the lagoons
and marshes.

THE AMERICAN AVOCET.

White Snipe, Yelper, Lawyer, and Scooper are some of the popular
names applied in various localities to this remarkably long-legged and
long and slender-necked creature, which is to be found in temperate
North America, and, in winter,