Sept, 1914 SURVEY OF BREEDING GROUNDS OF DUCKS 227 GRIDLEY, BUTTE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA One day, May 25, was spent on the Noyes Gun Club grounds in Sutter County, just west of the i?Iarysville Buttes. The next three days we camped on the grounds of the Gridley Gun Club in Butte County, which joins the Noyes Club on the north. Where Butte Creek enters the Sacramento River bottom it divides into a number of sloughs, and during high water large areas of the adjacent lowlands are flooded. The sloughs are lined with reeds and
tules in which Mallards and Shovellers are known to nest. A growth of timber
along the creek affords nesting sites formerly occupied, as we were told, by Wood Ducks, while the grass-covered flats near the sloughs furnish nesting sites for Cinnamon Teal and Pintail. Northwest of the l?Iarysville Buttes are extensive mud flats covered with grass. During migrations these flats become loafing grounds for geese, and it is here that geese are said to be seen at the proper seasons in greater numbers than anywhere else in the State. During the late spring and summer these same flats furnish excellent breeding grounds for such ducks, like the Pinta'fi, which nest at some distance from water. Abundant food is to be/ound in the nearby sloughs and ponds where there is heavy plant growth. Anas platyrhynchos. Mallard. A nest well concealed in tall sedge and found on a small island on l?Iay 26 contained one infertile egg and egg-shells from wkieh the young had hatched. A brood of young discovered on the 25th were fully ten inches in length and the primary wing-feathers were just start- ing. l?Iembers of another brood, found on the 27th, were not more than seven inches in length. When diving to escape capture they would often cling to the weeds beneath the surface, and when finally forced to come to the top for air would expose to view the top of the bill only. They tried to escape by simply diving and clinging motionless to weeds more often than they attempted to swim long distances under water. lIallards were the eommonest ducks in the vicinity of Gridley. l?Iost of them were seen in pairs, but not a few lone males were noted. Hatched egg- shells and broods of downy young showed that many of this species were already through nesting. Those seen in pairs were doubtless the latest of the nesters. Daffia acuta? Pintail. While crossing some grassy fields the auto in which we were riding startled a Pintail from her nest situated within two inches of the wheel tracks. The nest was typical, being built of grass and lined with down. It contained ten eggs (see fig. 66). Although we dragged with a rope several acres in the vicinity of this nest we were not able to locate an- other. A shepherd told us that he had discovered a number of nests to the westward of this place. From the numbers seen the Pintail must be a fairly comr?on nesting duck on the "goose grounds". Querquedula cyanoptera. Cinnamon Teal. In this vicinity I should say that the Cinnamon Teal ranked about third in ?bundanee, the Mallard coming first and the Pintail second. But one nest was found. This contained nine fresh eggs and was situated on the same island on which the l?Iallard's nest with hatched eggs was found and only about six feet from the latter. The nest was unusually well concealed in tall sedges, there being an arched run- way from the water to the nest, the distance being but little more than one foot. There was no down, or other lining. Other dueks.--A number of Shovellers (Spatula cbypeat?) were seen, but
