In the fall of 1878 I noticed
that he built unusually high and massive nests. I noticed them in
several different localities. In a shallow, sluggish pond by the
roadside, which I used to pass daily in my walk, two nests were in
process of construction throughout the month of November. The builders
worked only at night, and I could see each day that the work had
visibly advanced. When there was a slight skim of ice over the pond,
this was broken up about the nests, with trails through it in different
directions where the material had been brought. The houses were placed
a little to one side of the main channel, and were constructed entirely
of a species of coarse wild grass that grew all about. So far as I
could see, from first to last they were solid masses of grass, as if
the interior cavity or nest was to be excavated afterward, as doubtless
it was. As they emerged from the pond they gradually assumed the shape
of a miniature mountain, very bold and steep on the south side,
and running down a long gentle grade to the surface of the water on the
north.
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