EASTERN DOWITCHER 109 



the west coast of Hudson Bay belong to the form called scolopaceus. The only 

 district left for the breeding ground is the interior of Ungava and the eastern 

 shore of Hudson Bay. 



W. E. Clyde Todd, who has probably done more field work than 

 anyone else on the east coast of Hudson Bay, writes to me : 



Replying to your query about the dowitcher, it is my opinion that this species 

 does not breed in the interior of northern Ungava, but I admit I have nothing 

 to prove it one way or the other. It seems to me, though, that if it did breed 

 there, it would be far more common than it is at the southern end of James 

 Bay in migration, instead of being one of the rarer kinds. I never saw it any- 

 where north of this part, but then I have not been in northern Ungava in the 

 breeding season. 



Turner's record of a single bird at Fort Chimo, on June 10, 1883, 

 seems to be the only peg on which to hang the Ungava theory; and 

 this may have been a straggler. The Alberta birds are somewhat 

 intermediate ; and probably typical f/riseus, if there is any such thing, 

 will be found breeding somewhere in the muskeg regions of central 

 Canada between Alberta and Hudson Bay. 



There are several sets of dowitcher's eggs in collections, from this 

 general region, collected in 1903 and 1906, which have been looked 

 upon with some suspicion ; one came from Hayes River Flat, 25 miles 

 north of 55°, one from just south of Little Slave Lake, and three from 

 Little Red Deer River, Alberta. Now that the dowitcher has been 

 definitely shown to breed in Alberta, these records look authentic. 



To A. D. Henderson and his guests is due all the credit for recent 

 positive evidence. On June 18, 1924, he found a pair of dowitchers 

 with two young, only a day or two old, "near a small lake in a 

 muskeg about IT miles northeast of Fort Assiniboine." The follow- 

 ing season he found dowitchers again at three different places in the 

 same region, "probably a dozen pairs in all"; and on June 2, about 

 35 miles northeast of Fort Assiniboine, he took his first set of three 

 fresh eggs. The nest was " in a muskeg in open growth of small 

 tamarac trees about 125 yards from a lake " ; he describes it as " a 

 hollow in a lump of moss, scantily lined with a few tamarac twigs, 

 leaves, and fine dry grass, at the root of a small dead alder about 12 

 inches high"; it measured 1% inches deep and 4 inches across; the 

 top was 4 inches above standing water. 



Mr. Harlow r , who was with Mr. Henderson the next year, 1926, 

 took two sets of four eggs each. One "nest was in an extensive 

 tundralike muskeg, very quaking and wet, and the nest was in a 

 small bunch of dwarf birch, not over 12 inches high, on the end of a 

 little ridge of moss and completely surrounded on three sides by 

 water." The male was seen " singing " near the nest. He joined the 

 female after she had fluttered off the nest and the pair were seen feed- 

 ing together; several times they stood erect and rubbed their bills 



