CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. IO3 



them very common in Wales sound, Hudson strait, reaching there 

 about June ist, 1885. Common in the guh and river St. Lawrence 

 and westward to Lake Ontario, and occasionally as far west as 

 London, Ont. Fleming records one as having been taken at Port 

 Sydney, Parry Sound, and several were picked up on the ice at Beau- 

 maris, Muskoka, in 1899. Raine reports that in the winter of 1898 

 thousands of these ducks might have been seen any day in Toronto 

 harbour. A single specimen said by Atkinson to be the only one of 

 this species known to have been recorded from Manitoba was col- 

 lected at Whitehead lake, southern Manitoba, by Mr. H. W. O. 

 Boger. 



Spreadborough observed a few at Lesser Slave lake in May, 1903, 

 and Richardson, Ross and Macfarlane report it breeding along the 

 Arctic coast, and Macfarlane says it breeds in large numbers on the 

 Anderson river. Several sets of eggs were taken on Herschell island 

 for Mr. Raine by the missionaries Stringer and Whittaker. Turner, 

 Nelson and Murdoch say that this is a common duck from the 

 mouth of the Mackenzie westward all around the whole coast of 

 Alaska. It winters along the entire Aleutian chain and down the 

 Pacific coast of British Columbia, where Fannin says it is frequent 

 in winter. 



Breeding Notes. — This bird is a sea-duck, breeding northerly. 

 A clutch of seven eggs in my collection was taken at the mouth 

 of Mackenzie river June 20th, 1894. The nest was built on the 

 ground under a small willow. {Raine.) The long-tailed duck was 

 common on Ellsemere island and its nest was often found near fresh- 

 water lakes. (E. Bay.) 



From the Yukon delta along the coast, in each direction, their 

 nests are almost invariably placed in close proximity to a pond 

 or tide-creek — the sloping grassy bank of the ponds being a favorite 

 situation. The earliest set of eggs secured by me numbered five 

 and was taken on May i8th at St. Michael. From that date until 

 the end of June fresh eggs may be taken, but the majority of the 

 young are out by the last of that month. The parents always 

 keep in the immediate neighbourhood of the nest and swim about 

 in the nearest pond when the nest is approached. An unusual 

 amount of dry grass-stems, and down plucked from the parent's 

 breast, compose the nest, and if the eggs are left they are carefully 



