146 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Audubon (1840) gives an interesting account of the finding of 

 a surf scoter's nest in southern Labrador, which is about the only 

 detailed account we have of the nesting habits of this common 

 species. He writes : 



For more than a week after we had anchored in the lovely harbor of 

 Little Macatina, I had been anxiously searching for the nest of this species, 

 but in vain ; the millions that sped along the shores had no regard to my 

 wishes. At length I found that a few pairs had remained in the neighborhood, 

 and one morning while in the company of Captain Emery, searching for the 

 nests of the red-breasted merganser, over a vast oozy and treacherous fresh- 

 water marsh, I suddenly started a female surf duck from her treasure. We 

 were then about 5 miles distant from our harbor, from which our party had 

 come in two boats, and fully 5^/^ miles from the waters of the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence. The marsh was about 3 miles in length and so unsafe that more 

 than once we both feared as we were crossing it that we might never reach its 

 margin. The nest was snugly placed amid the tall leaves of a bunch of grass 

 and raised fully 4 inches above its roots. It was entirely composed of withered 

 and rotten weeds, the former being circularly arranged over the latter, pro- 

 ducing a well-rounded cavity 6 inches in diameter by 2'/^ in depth. The 

 borders of this inner cup were lined with the down of the bird, in the same 

 manner as the eider duck's nest, and in it lay 5 eggs, the smallest number 

 I have ever found in any duck's nest. They were 2^ inches in length by If 

 in their greatest breadth ; more equally rounded at both ends than usual ; the 

 shell perfectly smooth and of a uniform pale yellowish or cream color. 



We saw no signs of breeding surf scoters in southern Labrador 

 in 1909, and apparently the few which bred there in Audubon's 

 time have long since ceased to breed there regularly. On the north- 

 east coast of Labrador, however, or rather a few miles inland, they 

 probably still breed regularly and abundantly. We saw large num- 

 bers of males in the inner harbors and in the mouths of rivers at a 

 number of places all along the coast in July and August, which 

 suggested that probably the females were incubating sets of eggs 

 or tending broods of young on the inland ponds or marshes. We 

 hunted for nests in many suitable places, but never succeeded in find- 

 ing one, Samuel Anderson, an intelligent observer and collector 

 of birds at Hopedale, told me that surf scoters breed about the in- 

 land ponds and lakes, making their nests in the grass or under 

 bushes close to the edge of the water. There is a Labrador set of 

 T eggs in the collection of Herbert Massey, of Didsbury, England, 

 for which he has kindly given me the data; it was taken by R. S, 

 Duncan on Akpatok Island on June 11, 1903, and the female was 

 shot for identification. 



Eggs. — The surf scoter evidently lays from 5 to 9 eggs, usually 

 about 7, The eggs are, I think, usually recognizable by their shape, 

 size, and color. They vary in shape from ovate to elliptical oval and 

 are often quite pointed. The shell is smooth but not at all glossy. 



