164 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA 
common in Manitoba, but the writer has never seen it nor heard 
of its being seen west of that province. It seems to be common 
in summer on Hudson Bay and along the Arctic coast generally, 
especially in northern Alaska, where it breeds in great numbers, 
but never far from the sea. Both Brooks and Fannin speak of 
this species as being common on the British Columbia coast in 
spring and fall. 
Breepinc Nores.—tThis bird breeds plentifully on the Arctic 
coast. Its eggs are oil-green marked with irregular spots of liver- 
brown, of different sizes and shades, confluent at the obtuse end. 
(Richardson.) This species is common at Point Barrow, Alaska, 
and breeds abundantly, although the nest is exceedingly hard to 
find as the nesting birds are very wary and use every possible 
strategem to mislead one when looking for the eggs. It 
arrives about the end of May. Some of them, perhaps, arrive 
paired, but the majority are pairing soon after their arrival, to 
judge by their actions. As the tundra gradually clears of snow 
they become more scattered and spread further inland, deserting 
the shores of the beach lagoons, although they hardly confine 
themselves as much to the dry portions of the tundra as Baird’s 
Sandpiper is in the habit of doing. The nest, which is like that 
of all the rest of the waders, is always placed in the grass, some- 
times in dry and sometimes in rather swampy places, but never 
like the Phalaropes, onthe black tundra or on the isthmuses be- 
tween the ponds. Both parents share in the work of incubation, 
though we happened to obtain more males than females with the 
eggs. (Murdoch.) 
In early seasons the first of these birds reach the Yukon mouth 
and shores of Norton Sound by the r1oth of May, and by the 25th 
of that month they are in full force. They arrive in full breeding 
plumage, and are generally in small flocks, which soon break up 
and the birds scatter in twos and threes over the moss and grass- 
grown tundra to pair and attend to their summer duties. They 
nest from the first of June to the first of July, and in 1877, I secur- 
ed a set of four fresh eggs on the 3rd of the latter month. They 
generally choose some dry knoll, or other slight elevation, over- 
looking the neighbouring lakes and pools. Here, upon a bed of 
last year’s grasses, but without the trouble of arranging a formal 
nest, the female deposits three or four large eggs of a pale green- 
ish varying to pale brownish clay colour, with dull chocolate and 
umber-brown spots and blotches. (Ve/son.) 
