230 THE CONDOR V?I. XVI standing rushes about six inches above the water. Some gray down-feathers, larger in size, if anything, than those of the Mallard, were in the nest, but the bird had evidently only started to-/provide the lining: Additional evidence of the well-known fact that Redheads and Ruddies on occasion lay their eggs in other ducks' nests is thus afforded. (?uerquedula cyanoptera? Cinnamon Teal. A few Cinnamon Teal were seen at the head of Tule Lake. A female was flushed from her nest in the middle of a muddy peninsula on June 1. The nest was a depression lined with broken stems of rules mixed with a quantity of down, and was poorly con- cealed in a sparse growth of weeds. It contained nine eggs. Erismatura jamaicensis. Ruddy Duck. About eight individual Ruddies were seen during one morning's excursion. A new nest, discovered in a clump of tules where a pair of Ruddies was seen, was thought to pertain. to this spe- cies. Evidence as to breeding was obtained through the finding of the one egg in the nest of a Redhead, as described above (see fig. 68). Shore-birds.--Although no nests were found, the actions of Avocets, Stilts and Killdeer showed that they were nesting in the vicinity. Avocets were more abundant than Stilts in this locality. All shore-birds, however, were found in less numbers than at Los Barios. LOWER KLAMATH LAKE, OREGON AND CALIFORNIA Our camp on White Lake was situated in an old store building at the for- mer town-site of White Lake. This situation was our headquarters from June 3 to 6, and made possible explorations along the western shore of Lower Kla- math Lake as well as on White Lake, in both Oregon and California. On the west side of the lake we camped until June 9 on Taylor's ranch at the mouth of Willow'Creek, near the town-site of Brownell, Siskiyou County, California. From this point'we made a launch trip eight miles north to Bird Island and Sheepic Lake, but we spent most of our time on the freshwater marshes at the mouth of Willow and Cottonwood creeks. The eastern and western shores of Lower Klamath Lake are very differ- ent from one another in character. The eastern is lined with a dense strip of tules that extends into the lake a distance of five or six miles. Ducks were seen flying about over these tule beds and no doubt nest in them, but we found it impossible to search for nests. It was dangerous to wade and the tules were too thick to permit of using a boat. Judging from experience elsewhere, ducks prefer localities where there are frequent open patches of water rather than unbroke? stretches of tule growth. A small lake near the eastern shore of 'Lower Klamath, known as White Lake, is famed as a favorite haunt for ducks during the migrations. Along its eastern shore there are excellent nesting grounds for the ducks which prefer a growth of tules with open water adja- cent. As the hills come down to the lake on the southern shore of Lower Kla- math, the water is too deep for an extensive growth of tules. The best nesting grounds which we found were on the western side of the lake, in California, where the small streams entering the lake form extensive marshes. The marshes at the mouths of Cottonwood and Willow creeks are due to artificial inter- ference. Excellent conditions are said to obtain at the ?mouth of Sheepic Creek also. Only a narrow strip of tules fringes the lake on this side except in the vicinity of Bird Island where there are many tule-covered islands separated by channels of open water. Anas l?latyrhynchos. Mallard. The Mallard is apparently the common-
