420 BIRDS OF ARCTIC AMERICA MACFARLAXE. 



a small lake. It was a scooped-out hole lined with feathers and dowu 

 and contained six eggs, with their contents in a partially euibryo-formed 

 condition ; the female was snared on her nest. Ten was the maximum 

 number of eggs found among the obtained specimens. 



132. Anas boschas Liniireus. Mallard. 



This abundant and widely distributed duck is to be met with almost 

 throughout the entire wooded section of country under consideration. 

 Examples were received from various i)oints. It lays from six to eight 

 eggs in a nest composed of down and feathers, jilaced in a hole or de- 

 pression in the ground contiguous to small clumps or tufts of willow, 



etc 



133. Anas obscura Gmelin. Black Duck. 



Not uncommon on the Anderson River ; but although several birds 

 were shot, we failed to secure even one well authenticated nest of its 

 eggs. 



135. Anas strepera Linu. Gadwall. 



Although we obtained no specimens of this duck or its eggs, we bad 

 reason to suppose that it breeds annually in that quarter. 



137. Anas americana Gmel. Baldpate. 



Numbers of nests were discovered in different places in the vicinity 

 of Anderson Kiver, and a few as well near Swan River, one of the prin- 

 cipal affluents of the Wilmot-Horton Barren Grounds. 



139. Anas carolineusis Guiel. Green- wiujjed Tea!. 



This we found to be one of the rarest among our breeding ducks, and 

 for that reason but one nest was secured near Fort Andersou. Like 

 those of most of the teals, it was composed of feathers and down 

 jilaced in a depression on a dry piece of ground close to a clump of 

 willows. 



142. Spatula clypeata (Linn.). Sboveler. 



Very rare, and a couple only of sj^ecimens were collected at Fort 

 Anderson during the five or six seasons we resided there. 



143. Dafila acuta (Linn.). Pintail. 



This and (this especially) the Long tailed Duck, I think, are the most 

 immerous of the genera which annually resort to the Anderson and the 

 Arctic coast, and they are also among the first to arrive in the spring. 

 They were always abundant in the " Barrens." The nest was usually a 

 small cavity or depression in the ground, lined with down, withered 

 leaves, and a few feathers, and it lays from six to eight eggs. B(»th 

 species desert their nests almost immediately after the young are 



