290 COLYMBUS GLACIALIS. 



England, but is of rare occurrence beyond the middle parts 

 of the latter country. The young birds proceed farther south 

 than the old, of which very few at any season are met with 

 on the southern coasts of England. It is more numerous on 

 the western than on the eastern coasts of Scotland, where it 

 is chiefly seen in the firths, Mr. Dunn says it " is plentiful 

 both in Orkney and Shetland in the winter and spring. It 

 leaves about the latter end of May, by which time it has 

 acquired its perfect summer plumage." 



It appears that all, or nearly all, the individuals of this 

 species that frequent our coasts in autumn, winter, and 

 spring, retire farther northward in summer to breed. At 

 that season it has been found in the northern parts of the 

 continent of Europe, in Iceland, Greenland, and the northern 

 regions of America, from the shores of the icy sea to Mary- 

 land. Mr. Audubon, who gives by far the best account of 

 the habits of this bird that I have seen, is the only person 

 Avho has minutely described its nest, and the circumstances 

 relative to it. In presenting the following extract from his 

 Ornithological Biography, I have to premise that it breeds 

 on the borders of rivers, lakes, and marshes, never on the 

 sea-shore: — "The situation and form of the nest differ 

 according to circumstances. Some of those which breed in 

 the State of Maine place it on the hillocks of weeds and 

 mud, prepared by the musk-rat, on the edges of the lakes, 

 or at some distance from them among the rushes. Other 

 nests, found on the head-waters of the Wabash River, were 

 situated on the mud, amid the rank weeds, more than ten 

 yards from the water. One that I saw after the young had 

 left it, on Cayuga Lake, in 1824, was almost afloat, and 

 rudely attached to the rushes, more than forty yards from 

 the land, though its base was laid on the bottom, the water 

 being eight or nine inches deep. Others examined in 

 Labrador were placed on dry land, several yards from the 

 water, and raised to the height of nearly a foot above the 

 decayed moss on which they were laid. But, in cases where 

 the nest was found at any distance from the Avater, we dis- 

 covered a well-beaten path leading to it, and very much 

 resembling those made by the Beaver, to which the hunters 



