96 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



frequently at the point of some small jutting cape, and so near the 

 water that the parent can swim to and from the nest. The eggs are 

 large for the size of the bird, and rarely exceed eight in number. 

 The nest is composed of dry grass-stems, gathered close at hand, 

 and a largely fluffy bed of down plucked from the parent's breast. 

 The first week in June is the time usually chosen for depositing the 

 first eggs, but some are not laid until nearly a month later. (Nelson.) 



149. Lesser Scaup Duck. Blue bill. 



Aythya affinis. (Eyt.) Stejn. 1885. 



A pair was shot in June on Inosusulik, an islet about ten miles 

 from Egedesminde; it may breed in Greenland. (Arct. Man.) 

 A male and a female taken in Greenland in 1872 and a female in 

 1 891. (Winge.) Breeds in large numbers on Nottingham island 

 in Hudson strait; and at Churchill and York Factory, Hudson 

 bay. (Dr. R. Bell.) One killed at Humber river, Newfoundland. 

 (Louis H. Porter.) A rare summer migrant in Nova Scotia. Once 

 captured a brood of young ones on Grand lake. (Downs.) In 

 New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario, this is only a migrant, and 

 I strongly suspect that some of the breeding stations mentioned 

 are those of the greater scaup, which is certainly a more eastern 

 bird than this species. It is one of the commonest ducks in the 

 prairie region and northward to the very edge of the Barren Grounds. 

 It breeds in all the ponds and by the little lakes from lat. 49° to the 

 Arctic circle and be^^ond. Nelson says this is a very rare straggler 

 in Alaska. Bishop saw a pair with young on a small pond at Lower 

 Labarge, Yukon river. Fannin and Brooks report it tolerably 

 common in British Columbia. The latter says it winters on Lake 

 Okanagan, B.C. 



Breeding Notes. — ^This species was first seen at Deep lake, 

 Indian Head, Sask., on April i6th, 1892, at which time eight indi- 

 viduals were observed ; they very shortly after came in great num- 

 bers, and a pair shot had their stomachs full of water-insects, which 

 are very abundant in the lake. On June 23rd found a nest contain- 

 ing nine eggs. The nest was in the middle of a "slough" in a mass 

 of last year's rushes (Scirpus lacustris), lined with down from the 

 bird's own breast. (Spreadborough.) Three sets of eggs taken at 

 Burnt lake, Alberta, June 14th and 15th, 1896; breeds also in Mani- 

 toba, but nowhere com.mon. (Dippie.) 



