CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 9 
eggs partially covered with rushes laid lengthwise of the nest 
(Lewis M. Terrill.) 
The pied-billed grebe is very common in the River St. Law- 
rence between Kingston and Brockville: I have seen a number 
of nests. The nest of this species is a more substantial structure 
and better concealed than that of the horned grebe. In one 
instance I have known a colony breeding together; this was on 
June Ist, 1897, where in a space less than a quarter of an acre, 
in a retired bay off the St. Lawrence. below Rockport, I 
found four nests close together—one with seven eggs, one with 
eight, and two with nine. These, nests, though floating 
structures, were quite substantial, and were in about three feet of 
water ; all the eggs were covered with weeds and were incubated 
from a week to ten days. Nowhere else have I found more than 
eight eggs in the nest, .and that number only once. The usual 
number is seven. (Rev. C.J. Young.) 
This species is more common on the St. Clair flats and at 
Point Pelee than the horned grebe. Both species build a floating 
nest among the rushes, and both cover their eggs when they leave 
tne nest. Set 4-6. (W. Saunders.) 
Famity I]. GAVIIDAS, Loons. 
IV. GAVIA Forster. 1788. 
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7. Great Northern Diver. Loon. 
Gavia imber (GUNN.) ALLEN. 1897. 
This is one of our most widely distributed birds, breeding from 
Greenland (Arct. Man.) and Labrador (Sigelow) in the east, to 
Alaska (Turner, Bishop and Osgood) in the west. Macfarlane 
found it breeding at Fort Anderson, in Lat. 68° 30’, and it is 
frequent as far south as Lat. 49°, so that it is to be found 
throughout the whcle northern part of the continent. Nearly 
every small lake throughout the country, except in the prairie 
region, is tenanted in summer by a pair or more of these birds, 
and the larger lakes by many pairs, but as the country i» settled 
it is becoming scarcer. All the members of the Geological 
Survey staff who have found loons’ nests agree with Macfarlane 
