154 The Ottawa Naturalist. | November 



darker and of a warm greyish tint. Both ducks are very destruc- 

 tive to fish and are therefore disUked by the fishermen. They are 

 known to gunners as sawbills, and their flesh is rank and un- 

 palatable. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 



During the past season I investigated an unusual nesting site 

 of our common black duck {Anas obscura). This well known and 

 extensively distributed species usually builds its nest on the 

 ground, but last June I visited an island in the St. Lawrence 

 where a pair had taken possession of a last year's crow's nest and 

 successfully brought off their brood. The nest, which was built 

 after the usual style ot crow architecture, was saddled on a limb 

 of a hugh elm, forty feet from the ground, and was reached after 

 a difficult climb with climbing irons. A liberal supply of down had 

 been furnished by the duck and incubation was well advanced, 

 just how frequently such nesting sites are resorted to by these 

 ducks it is difficult to say ; had the bird not been accidentally 

 observed flying to the tree her presence would never have been 

 suspected. I photographed the nest containing the ten e-g^s, but 

 owing to the extremely awkward position in which I had to make 

 the exposure only eight are shown. The duck sat very close and 

 did not leave the nest until I was within a few feet of it. 



The Black Guillemot {Cephus grylle). — June loth last, while 

 walking along the harbor front, I saw a black guillemot swimming 

 rapidly toward the open lake. I believe this is the first instance 

 of this species having been observed in this locality. Speaking of 

 this bird in 1885 the late Mr. Mcllwraith, in " Birds of Ontario," 

 says one was shot in Hamilton Bay many years ago, and accord- 

 ing to the Catalogue of Canadian Birds one was taken at Toronto 

 in 1885. These seem to complete our records for Ontario. While 

 at the Magdalen Islands last year I saw many flocks ; they are 

 swift flyers and expert divers. Unfortunately, a large percentage 

 of the guillemots that occasionally stray as far west as Lake On- 

 tario die of starvation, so often the common fate of sea birds that 



wander so far from their natural habitat. 



E. Beaupr6. 

 Kingston, Oct., 1904. 



