ExMhition of Nests and Eggs of Shoveller Diiclc, do. 203 



June following, and I have good reason to believe tliat they 

 built another nest witliin a few yards of the one I took. 



The nest and eggs of the scaup duck {Fidifjula marila), 

 shown, are from the same locality as the shoveller's nest. 

 For some reason, considerable numbers of scaup ducks 

 remained on the loch during the summer of 1880. 



On the 15th of May I saw forty, all paired. On the 20th 

 of the same month I counted eleven males and ten females ; a 

 week later there were still ten pairs on the loch. On June 

 5th, I saw five pairs, and on the following day I started a 

 female scaup from her nest. This was placed in an isolated 

 clump of rushes close to the side of the loch, and contained 

 eleven fresh eggs. It was built of dead rushes, and was lined 

 with a large quantity of down. The old bird after leaving 

 the nest pitched in the water about a gunshot off, and gave 

 me a good opportunity of examining her through a telescope. 

 I can fnid no previous record of this duck having bred in 

 Britain. 



The goosander's nest (with the female bird) was taken in 

 West Sutherland by myself on the 10th of May 1878. 

 AVhile fishing on a loch I noticed a male goosander fly past 

 our boat, and pitch in the water close to the edge of a birch 

 wood that clothed a steep and broken hillside. The male was 

 shortly afterwards joined by a female, and judging from their 

 movements that they had a nest not far off, I landed with the 

 boatman and proceeded to search the wood. We found, how- 

 ever, that the trees were too small to accommodate a goosander 

 witli a hole large enough to contain its nest, and we had 

 abandoned the search and were on our way back to the boat, 

 when I happened to put my foot on the limb of a birch tree 

 that grew on the verge of a low cliff, and to my astonishment 

 out came a female goosander apparently from the ground. On 

 examination, however, we found a deep hole running between 

 the roots of the birch and the surface of the rock, and about 

 18 inches from the entrance was a nest of white down con- 

 taining twelve eggs. We left the nest for a time, and return- 

 ing about dusk secured the female, by throwing a plaid over 

 the hole. 



