256 Natural History Bulletin. 



Order ANSERES. Lamellirostral Swimmers, 



Family ANATlDyE. Ducks, Geese and Swans. 



LoPHODYTEs cucuLLATUs (Linn.). Hooded Merganser. 

 A flock of these birds were seen resting on a sluggish creek, 

 which enters the Saskatchewan near Chemawawin; they were 

 all apparently females and young. 



A single specimen, $ ad., was seen and secured on Crow- 

 Duck Lake. 



Anas boschas Linn. Mallard. '■'■Stock duck'''' of the 

 natives. Abundant in the sloughs above Chemawawin, where 

 they breed. The number of ducks in this region is astound- 

 ing. The Indians could easily secure and salt down enough 

 ducks in the fall to last them all winter, but, with their usual 

 improvidence, they allow this grand source of supplies to pass 

 southward, without any thought of the cold and hungry win- 

 ter months. Amons: all the ducks that we secured near 

 Chemawawin in August, there was only one adult male. The 

 Indians say that the drakes go off by themselves to some 

 secluded place on or near Lake Winnipeg, to moult their wing 

 feathers, and remain away from the females until their wings 

 are full grown. Thompson quotes the MS. of Nash as fol- 

 lows: "About the middle of May the females commence to set; 

 the drakes then moult, losing their briUiant plumage; whilst 

 undergoing this change, they gather together in small flocks 

 of about five or six, and hide themselves in the rushes, from 

 which it is very hard to dislodge them, even with good dogs."i 



Breeds within the Arctic Circle. (MacFarlane). 



Nine specimens secured: 8 ?, i 3. 



Anas obscura Gmel. Dusky Duck. A duck was described 

 to me by the natives as the "black duck," a- very large species 

 and excellent to eat, which was said to be common on the 

 Saskatchewan between Cedar Lake and Grand Rapids. If 

 their description was at all correct, it must have referred to the 

 dusky duck. 



1 The Birds of Manitoba, by Ernest E. Thompson, page 476. 



