120 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



keep in flocks by themselves, but mixed flocks are occasionally seen ; 

 such mixed flocks are more apt to contain American and surf 

 scoters than white-winged scoters. 

 Nesting.— Dv. E. W. Nelson (1887) writes: 



At St. Michael tliese ducks are never seen in spring until the ice begins to 

 break offshore and the marshes are dotted with pools of open water. May 16 

 is the earliest date of arrival I recorded. Toward the end of this month they 

 leave the leads in the ice and are found in abundance among the salt and 

 fresh water ponds on the great marshes from the Yukon mouth north and 

 south. The mating is quickly accomplished and a nesting site chosen on the 

 border of some pond. The spot is artfully hidden in the standing grass, and 

 the eggs, if left by the parent, are carefully covered with grass and moss. 

 At the Yukon mouth Dall found a nest of this species on June 17. The nest 

 contained two white and rather large eggs, and was in a bunch of willows 

 on a small island, and was well lined with dry grass, leaves, moss, and 

 feathers. 



Edward Adams (1878) found this species breeding in the same 

 general region, and says of its nesting habits : 



These birds were rather late in their arrival ; I met with none until the 

 19th of May. Toward the end of the month several pairs had taken possession 

 of the larger lakes near Miehalaski; here they remained to breed, seldom 

 going out to sea, but keeping together in small flocks in the middle of the 

 lake. Their nests were well secreted in the clefts and hollows about the 

 steep banks of the lakes, close to the water; they were built of coarse gi*ass, 

 and well lined with feathers and down. Thej^ had not laid when I last ex- 

 amined the nests. 



Audubon's (1840) historic account of the nesting of the Ameri- 

 can scoter on the south coast of Labrador is interesting as showing 

 that it once bred farther south than it now does and as illustrating 

 its method of nesting in Labrador, where it probably still breeds 

 abundantly in the more remote sections; he writes: 



On the 11th of July, 1833, a nest of this bird was found by my young com- 

 panions in Labrador. It was placed at the distance of about 2 yards from 

 the margin of a large fresh-water pond, about a mile from the shore of the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence, under a low fir, in the manner often adopted by the 

 eider duck, the nest of which it somewhat resembled, although it was much 

 smaller. It was composed externally of small sticks, moss, and grasses, lined 

 with down, in smaller quantity than that found in the nest of the bird just 

 mentioned, and mixed with feathers. The eggs, which were ready to be 

 hatched, were 8 in number, 2 inches in length, an inch and five-eighths in 

 breadth, of an oval form, smooth, and of a uniform pale yellowish color. 



We did not observe this species on the south coast of Labrador 

 except as a migrant, but on the east coast we found it fairly common 

 all summer all along the coast, at least as far north as Hopedale. 

 Flocks made up entirely of males were seen in many of the inner 

 bays and in the mouths of rivers in July and August; probably 

 their deserted mates were incubating on their eggs or tending broods 

 of young about the inland ponds a few miles back from the coast. 



