284 The Ottawa Naturalist. [March 



spotted ones and seven ot the others. All told, the two of us took 

 about fifty eggs during the day. This date we also found too late, 

 and this year we will visit it on the ist or 2nd May, and I hope 

 you will prepare for it and have a good day up the ashes about 

 70 to 90 feet above terra firman 



From this extract it is clearly a lawful conclusion that some 

 of the herons in that colony confined their feeding to smaller 

 waters, while others, nesting in the same tree, visited Lake Erie 

 as well, or possibly did the whole of their hunting on its waters. 



On a careful examination of the set taken by Mr. Anderson 

 in May, iSqg, I find that although the eggs were fresh, yet every 

 one is spotted, varying from two to three small spots on what was 

 probably the most recent q^^, up to several dozen spots of varioi.s 

 sizes on the earlier specimens. Therefore it is manifest that the 

 eggs become spotted very soon indeed after they are laid, and 

 point strongly to the conclusion that the unspotted ones belong to 

 birds that confine their hunting exclusively to the smaller waters. 



As a rule it is very difficult, if not impossible, to establish that 

 there is any fixed difference in the habits of individual birds of a 

 breeding colony, and a hint of individuality such as these spotted 

 eggs gives, is a gratifying discovery to the student of bird life. 



THE AMERICAN SCOTER IN MIDDLESEX. 



(Read before the Ornithological Section of the Entomological Society of 



Ontario.) 



By vV. E. Saunders. 



At the last meeting I presented for inspection a specimen of the 

 Surf Scoter, which was one ot a flock of three, two of which had 

 been shot on the Thames River, eight miles west, by Messrs. 

 Murdock and Bridgeman. Only a single record had previously 

 existed for the county, and no other Scoter had been recorded 

 at all. 



In the early morning of Nov. 13th, while walking up from 

 the waterworks, I saw a duck on the river and after making the 

 usual sneak along the bank, I got a good rifle-shot at it and 

 missed. It flew, but only about a hundred yards, when it lit 



