^^m!"^'] PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 415 



that the position held during those years and the opportunities thereby 

 afforded for making a splendid collection were exceptionally good yet, 

 owing to ignorance and a want of interest displayed, both by Indians 

 and Esquimaux in the beginning, one or two rather unfavorable sea- 

 sons, heavy annual losses of specimens by accidents and neglect, the 

 almost total destruction by animals of our last spring's very small list, 

 the death by epidemic, measles, and scarlatina of the majority of our 

 best and most experienced native collectors, in the autumn and early 

 winter months of 1865, and the abandonment of Fort Anderson in the 

 summer of 1860, both of which last- mentioned adverse factors pre- 

 vented me from spending the nesting season of that and the succeed- 

 ing year, as I had intended, on the shores and in the neighborhood of 

 Esquimaux Lake and Liverpool Bay, very much still remains to be 

 done by future explorers, even in this comparatively small section of 

 the Great Mackenzie Basin, before its fauna is satisfactorily, far less 

 exhaustively^, ascertained, and the result duly communicated to the 

 scientific world. 



It will be observed from the list which follows that comparatively few 

 of the many other species of birds which indubitably occur within the 

 aforesaid defined boundaries, and whose eggs were not discovered or 

 received by us, are noted therein. The notes themselves are chiefly an 

 abridgment of the relative text, which had been condensed or quoted 

 from the copious memoranda furnished along with the specimens, as 

 contained in that valuable and most interesting " History of North 

 American Birds, by Messrs. S. F. Baird, T. M. Brewer, and R. Ridg- 

 way." The three volumes of the Land Birds were published in 1874, 

 and the two of Water Birds in 1884, both by Little, Brown & Co., of 

 Boston, Massachusetts. For the sake of conformity, however, to the 

 canons of nomenclature, since adopted by the American Ornithologists' 

 Union, their recently revised and abridged Check List will be closely 

 adhered to in the following classification. 



WATER BIRDS. 



2. Coiynibus holboellii (Reinhardt). Holbcell's Grebe. 



My notes record but two nests of this grebe, one contained four and 

 the other five eggs, and both were found at a distance of some 40 or 50 

 miles south of Fort Anderson. 



3. Colymbus auritus Linnseus. Horned Grebe. 



A skin or two, but no eggs, were secured near Lockhart River in June, 

 1861, and forwarded to the late Mr. B. R. Ross, while a female parent 

 with five eggs was taken on a nest on the edge of a small lake about 60 

 miles southeast of the post in June, 1866, but they were afterwards lost 

 in the manner already alluded to. I should say that grebes were far 

 from numerous, even in the southern portion of the Anderson country. 



