i907 ] Bent, Summer Birds of Southwestern Saskatchewan. 417 



willow, and they must have fared sumptuously on stolen duck's 

 eggs. A pair of Short-eared Owls had a nest on the island con- 

 taining young in various stages of growth. On June 17, 1905, 

 Mr. Job and I attempted to make a careful census of the ducks 

 breeding on the island, by dragging it as thoroughly as we could 

 with a long rope and recording the nests as the ducks were flushed. 

 We were unable to drag the whole island as the rose bushes were 

 too thick in many places, but in the course of two hours' work we 

 recorded 61 nests, as follows: Mallard, 5 nests; Gadwall, 23 nests; 

 Baldpate, 3 nests; Green-winged Teal, 2 nests; Blue-winged Teal, 

 10 nests; Shoveller, 7 nests; Pintail, 8 nests; and Lesser Scaup 

 Duck, 3 nests. The ducks were identified to the best of our ability 

 by eyesight; the female Gadwalls and Baldpates were very diffi- 

 cult to distinguish and there may have been more of the latter than 

 we supposed, but certainly both species were nesting there, as we 

 saw a number of males in the small pond-holes ; the Green-winged 

 Teals' nests were identified by seeing the female join a male of 

 that species. We started a number of ducks, mostly Pintails, 

 where we failed to find nests, which probably meant broods of 

 young and which were not counted. Most of the sets were incom- 

 plete or fresh indicating that the ducks were only just beginning 

 to lay; we therefore must have overlooked a great many nests, 

 where the eggs were covered and no ducks flushed, as we found 

 a number of such nests by accident. Considering these facts, 

 making allowance for the unexplored parts of the island and judging 

 from the immense numbers of ducks that were flying about or bedded 

 out on the lake, I considered it fair to assume that at least 150 

 pairs of ducks were breeding or preparing to breed on this one 

 island. In addition to the species above recorded, we saw on the 

 island several American Mergansers, a White-winged Scoter and 

 one Cinnamon Teal, making a total of 14 species of ducks which 

 were probably breeding on the island or in the sloughs around it, 

 of which we actually found the nests of 11 species. Prof. Macoun 

 recorded the American Scaup Duck as breeding here, but we were 

 unable to identify any with certainty ; I found a nest in the slough 

 near this island which I feel fairly confident was a Ring-necked 

 Duck's nest, but I w T as unable to shoot the bird; these two species 

 must therefore be considered of doubtful occurrence, at present. 

 As may be imagined, it was with considerable interest and pleasant 



