The Surf Scoter 477 



"For more than a week after we had anchored in the lovely harbour 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 and treacherous fresh-water marsh, I 

 suddenly started a female Surf Duck from her treasure. We were then about 

 five miles distant from our harbour, from which our party had come in two 

 boats, and five and a half miles from the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

 The marsh was about three 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 four inches above its roots. It was entirely composed of withered and 

 rotted weeds, the former being circularly arranged over the latter, producing a 

 well-rounded cavity, six inches in diameter, but two and a half 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 five eggs, the smallest number I 

 have ever found in any Duck's nest. They were two inches and two-and-a-half 

 eighths in length, by one inch and five-eighths in their greatest breadth; more 

 equally rounded at both ends than usually; the shell perfectly smooth, and of a 

 uniform pale yellowish or cream-color." 



In a letter which the writer recently received from W. E. Clyde Todd there 

 occurs this statement: 



"The Surf Scoter breeds on Charlton Island, near the head of James Bay, 

 and along the east coast of the same, as far south as the Sheppard Islands, in 

 latitude 52° 45', at both of which localities I encountered young birds in the 

 summer; of 1912. On July 12, at Charlton, a brood of four ducklings, not 

 over a week or ten days old, accompanied by their parents, were discovered 

 in a small lake hidden away in the woods, nearly two miles from the shore. 

 This raised the question as to whether the old birds are accustomed to seek 

 out such retired situations as nesting-places, and when and how the young are 

 conducted to the open waters of the bay. Later in the season (August 3) a 

 female with her brood was met with in a sheltered cove along the shore of one 

 of the Sheppard Islands. The young at once made for the shore, while she 

 pattered off in an opposite direction, endeavoring to draw attention to herself 

 — just as I have seen other Ducks do under similar circumstances." 



The male of this species is in appearance a striking bird, as may be seen from 

 the accompanying drawing. His face can hardly be said to be handsome, how- 

 ever, and yet no less an authority than William Leon Dawson says: "the duck- 

 ladies like him." 



"in fact they have to," he continues, "for they are such homely bodies 

 themselves that the perversity of attraction must be mutual. I have seen a 

 Surf Scoter courtship in mid-April. Five males are devoting themselves to one 



