60 NOTES ON THE 



the central portion of the secondaries; outer primaries and tips 

 of all, brownish-black; inner ones pale gray; the central line 

 dusky; axillars and middle of the inferior surface of the wing, 

 white; bi^l blue; nail black; legs plumbeous; iris yellow. 



Length, 20; wing, 9; tarsus, 1,60; commissure, 2.15. 



Habitat, North America generally. 



Since the previous was penned, I have recovered some of my 

 most valuable notes which had mysteriously disappeared some 

 time ago, amongst which is an account of discovery of a full 

 nest of this species in the latter part of May, 1877, but a short 

 distance from my cottage at Lake Minnetonka. It was built on 

 the side of an obsolete, half destroyed old muskrat house, in 

 the middle of a reedy lake or pond, formerly a bay-like prong 

 of the greater lake itself It was composed of reeds almost en- 

 tirely, over which were some grasses, and over this a layer of 

 the duck's own feathers. Ten pale, drab colored, dirty eggs, 

 with just a perceptible wash of olivaceous, constituted the 

 clutch, none of which showed any signs of being addled. The 

 Blue-bills breed in all portions of the State I doubt not, much 

 more frequently than generally hitherto supposed. 



The reckless presumptions, or rather assumptions of carpet- 

 concluders, as to the habits of species about which little was 

 formerly known, have deterred many from earnest, expectant 

 investigations in sections where the decree had precluded all 

 hopes of finding them at all. Over ambitious writers have an- 

 ticipated science by gratuitous conclusions upon very small 

 data for very large inferences. We feel sorry for them when 

 sleeping truth has finished her nap. The world is round, and 

 still moves unconcernedly on. 



AYTHYA AFFINIS (Eyton). (149.) 



LESSER SCAUP DUCK. 



It has been often observed that although the Greater Scaup 

 Ducks may come to us in the spring or fall migration in great 

 numbers, the Lesser Scaup Ducks are just as likely to be only 

 sparingly represented, and when on the other hand, the former 

 are barely represented, this species will as possibly be found 

 abundant; yet this is by no means a rule, for I have not only 

 known them to both be here in exceptional numbers, but to be 

 equally reduced to a mere representation. I find by referring 

 to my records of the dates of arrival of the birds in spring, 

 that as a general thing, the species under consideration, has 

 been slightly later in arriving at this locality, say three to five 

 days. Like the former, they seek the running streams, or 

 rather their estuaries, on first reaching this latitude, but very 

 soon resort to the swampy marshes and shallow ponds and 

 pools. Their food is more restricted to larvae, worms, and 



