LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WILD FOWL 133 



flying about in pairs; evidently they had not yet laid. On June 15 

 we again explored the islands quite thoroughly, finding only one 

 incomplete set of 5 eggs, cold and fresh. This nest was in the center 

 of a small j^atch of rosebushes, where a hollow had been scraped in 

 the ground and the eggs buried under a lot of dry leaves, sticks, soil, 

 and rubbish, so as to be completely concealed from view. No attempt 

 had been made to line the nest with down which is generally added 

 after the set is complete. The scattered clumps of rosebushes on 

 these islands, where they grew tall and thick among masses of large 

 boulders, formed excellent nesting sites for the scoters and doubtless 

 concealed several nests. One nest we certainly overlooked, which 

 on June 22, was found to contain 12 eggs. 



In the Crane Lake region in southwestern Saskatchewan we found 

 a few pairs of white-winged scoters breeding in 1905 and 1906, but 

 only one nest was found on June 28, 1906. While walking through 

 an extensive patch of wild rosebushes near a small slough the female 

 was flushed from the nest almost underfoot and shot by my com- 

 panion. Dr. Louis B. Bishop. The nest consisted of a hollow in 

 the ground under the rosebushes, profusely lined with dark-gi-ay 

 down; it contained 9 fresh eggs. All of the nests that Mr. Job 

 and I have seen were placed under wild rosebushes or other small 

 deciduous shrubs, but others have found them in somewhat different 

 situations. 



Macoun (1909) records a nest found by Walter Eaine as follows: 



On June 26, 1893, Mr. G. F. Dippie and myself found a nest containing 9 

 eggs on an island at the south end of Lake Manitoba. The nest was built 

 between loose bowlders and consisted of a hollow in the sand lined abun- 

 dantly with dark down. The eggs were very large and of a deep, rich, buff 

 color. The bird sat very close upon the nest and did not fly up until I 

 almost trod upon her. It appears to be a late breeder, nesting late in June 

 on the islands of Lakes Manitoba and Winnipeg. Mr. Newman sent me an 

 egg of this bird which he took from a female he had shot at Swan Lake, 

 northern Alberta, on June 2.5, 1897. 



The nest down of the white-winged scoter is larger than that of 

 the American scoter ; in color it varies from " clove brown " to 

 " olive brown," with small and inconspicuous whitish centers. 



Eggs. — As this scoter is a late breeder, probably some of the 

 smaller sets referred to were incomplete. I think that the normal 

 number of eggs in a full set varies from 9 to 14. The eggs are 

 elliptical ovate in shape. The shell is smooth but not glossy; in 

 some eggs it is very finely granulated or minutely pitted. When 

 first collected, even after being blown, the color is a beautiful " pale 

 ochraceous salmon " or " sea shell pink," but this color fades to 

 " pale pinkish buff " or " cartridge buff " in cabinet specimens. The 

 pitted eggs are minutely dotted with "pinkish cinnamon," giving 



