ATHYIA AFFINIS. 593 
THYIA AFFINIS (Eyton). 
[§ 5743. Zhree-—Yukon, 24 June, 1861. From the Smith- 
sonian Institution, through Professor Baird, 1863. 
The accompanying note from Prof. Baird states that these were received 
from Mr. Kennicott, and adds “ Parent shot.” In the “ Biographical Sketch ” 
of that indefatigable explorer of Arctic America published in the ‘ Transac- 
tions of the Chicago Academy of Sciences’ (i. pp. 183-226) are contained 
some extracts from his journals kept at Fort Yukon, where he spent the 
winter of 1860-1 with Mr. Lockhart, who was in charge of the station. 
Therein we read (p. 175):—“ From the last of May till now (June 24th) 
Lockhart and I have been at work generally about eighteen hours out of 
every twenty-four. As it is light all night (indeed for a week we see the sun 
at midnight—by refraction, I suppose), we pay little attention to the time of 
day, but just work as long as we can keep awake. We start off from the fort 
with several Indians and canoes, and go through a series of lakes, making 
portages between these and the various small rivers (both lakes and rivers are 
+ very numerous), thus making a turn of fifty to one hundred miles in two or 
three days. We always go with at least two canoes and a party of four, and 
when we enter a lake one of the occupants of one canoe hunts in it through 
the grass at the edge of the lake where the Loons, Grebes, and Canvas-back 
Ducks nest, while his companion wades in the shallow water among the 
grass, near shore, where we get Fulix marila and F. affinis (Scaup Duck’s) 
eggs, and sometimes a nest of Dajila acuta (Pin-tail Duck) that is near the 
water, or a Canvas-back Duck in shoal water. The nests are found by seeing 
the female rise from them. For Widgeon’s eggs we hunt through the bushes 
and for Pin-tail Ducks, too, generally. When we find spots that seem to 
promise good breeding-ground ashore, we leave the canoes and hunt through 
the weeds and open dry spots.” 
It will thus be seen that these eggs were taken the very day Mr. Kennicott 
wrote the above passage, and it can hardly be that in writing it he had not 
this nest, among others, in view; but it is very much to be regretted that his 
complete notes have never been published. | 
[§ 5744. Four.—Yukon, 26 June, 1863. From the Smith- 
sonian Institution, through Professor Baird, 1866. 
“ Parent, no. 36222.” From a nest of nine, taken by Mr. James Lockhart, 
who remained at Fort Yukon after Mr. Kennicott’s departure in the spring of 
1862. (Cf. P. Z. S. 1867, p. 167.)] 
PART IV. 2Q 
