CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS.' 99 



House and Oxford House and a few were seen every day between 

 Knee lake and York Factory. As it breeds chiefly in poplar trees, 

 it will be found generally breeding where these trees are in profu- 

 sion. The writer has found this bird breeding on Buffalo lake, 

 near Methye portage, in lat. 56° N. Spreadborough observed it 

 from the mouth of Lesser Slave river to Peace River Landing and 

 Ross says it extends to the Arctic coast in the Mackenzie River 

 valley, and is not rare. 



This is an extremely rare bird on the western and northern coasts 

 of Alaska. In four years I saw only four birds. It is a common 

 duck in the interior, and reaches the mouth of the Yukon in the 

 breeding season. (Nelson.) I am confident that a flock of ducks 

 seen about 25 miles above Circle City, Alaska, Aug. 12, 1899, were 

 this species or C. islandica. {Bishop.) It winters on the west 

 coast frotn Unalaska {Turner) to the Fraser river and Lake Okan- 

 agan, where it is abundant. {Brooks.) Seen by Spreadborough at 

 Douglas, Hope, Penticton, Sidley and Elko, B. C, and recorded bv 

 Brooks as common during migrations in the Cariboo district, B.C. 



Breeding Notes. — A small flock of these birds was observed 

 about the Bay of Ouinte, Lake Ontario, in August, 1897, and two 

 or three were shot a little later; it is very probable a pair or two 

 nested not far off. {Rev. C. J. Young.) 



This bird prefers to nest in a tree some fifteen or twenty-five feet 

 from the ground. The nest is composed of grass, leaves and moss, 

 and lined with feathers. The eggs, eight or more in number, are of an 

 ashA-green colour. It lays about the middle of May, or later. In 

 1894 a pair of these birds built near a large pond within a short 

 distance of Templeton, Que., a few miles from Ottawa, and raised 

 a small brood of five. On the 23rd of June these youngsters were 

 quite able to dive and follow the old bird twenty yards under water. 

 {G. R. White.) 



Fairly common in Manitoba and Alberta. Downy young shot 

 at Reaburn, Manitoba, July 4th, 1893. {Dippie.) In June, 1892, 

 at Deep lake, Indian Head, Sask., various nests of this species were 

 taken in hollow trees. One was found in a hollow cottonwood, 

 about fifteen feet from the ground, and another in a hollow elm 

 tree, about twenty-five feet from the ground. This nest was made 

 of rotten wood lined with down. Another was in an elm stub, and 



