In North-West Canada. 57 



terns' nests were also depressions in the sand, lined with a few 

 blades of ^rass, and contained two and three eggs each, and 

 man}^ nests only contained one Qgg, the full complement of 

 eggs not being yet laid as the terns are late breeders. The 

 gulls' nests were also hollows in the sand, lined witli grasses, 

 and contained two and three eggs each. The ground colour of 

 some specimens is pale brown, others greenish olive brown, 

 spotted with dark brown of various shades, with grey under 

 shell markings. The average size is 2.00x1.35. 



At Crescent Lake, in Manitoba, the Bonaparte's gulls make 

 their nests in bushes growing in or near the water, and the 

 nests are substantial structures of twigs and rushes, but at 

 Rush Lake where there are no bushes, the gulls have to be 

 content to make their nests on the ground. We collected a 

 tine series of avosets' eggs, taking care to keep the clutches 

 separate by marking them with a pencil. The first clutch we 

 marked a-4, second clutch b-4, and so on, until we had got 

 pretty nearly through the alphabet. Any clutches that were 

 advanced in incubation we left for the birds to hatch. We 

 also took a nice series of eggs of Foster's tern, and a number 

 of sets of Bonaparte's gulls, and shot three specimens of the 

 latter. We left the birds and eggs and waded out to the far 

 island, and here we also found a number of all three species, 

 but the avosets were the most plentiful, and these two islands 

 must have had close upon four hundred eggs of the avoset on 

 them. At the far end of the sandy island we flushed a Canada 

 goose, which flew along the top of the water with a splash> 

 and making a croaking noise. On arriving at the spot we were 

 delighted to find its cosy nest of down, containing five eggs, 

 which were partly incubated, but we were able to make good 

 specimens of them. This was, no doubt, the second clutch of 

 eggs laid by this bird, as the Canada goose is an early breeder, 

 and has eggs soon after the ice melts on the lakes early in 

 May. The nest was a hollow in the sand, one foot and a-half 

 in diameter, and was abundantly lined with grey down. I 

 now have the nest and eggs in one of my cabinets, and it looks 

 well, surrounded with the downy nests and clutches of Ameri- 



