88 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 
breeding, except that McIlwraith says that Dr. Macallum observed 
one leading its young within half a mile of Dunnville, at the mouth 
of the Grand river, Lake Erie, and Saunders and Morden say it may 
breed on the St. Clair flats. 
It is one of the commonest ducks in the prairie region, from 
Manitoba to the mountains and from lat. 49° to the Barren Grounds, 
where it becomes rare, as Macfarlane says only a couple of specimens 
were collected at Fort Anderson in six years. Spreadborough saw 
it in nearly all the sloughs between Lesser Slave lake and Peace River 
Landing,Atha. Between lat. 51° and lat. 54° it is especially abundant, 
and it is found in the autumn in immense numbers in every pond and 
lakelet. It has been taken at Moose Factory and Trout lake. A 
few pairs were breeding on Vermilion lakes, at Banff, in May, 1891; 
and at Lake Ste. Anne, Alberta, June, 1898. It is a rare species in 
Alaska, though Nelson reports it breeding as far north as Kotzebue 
sound. Fannin says it is an abundant summer resident on the 
mainland of British Columbia, east of the Coast range, and Brooks 
says it is a common resident in the lower Fraser valley about Sumas 
lake, and a scarce breeder in the neighbourhood of 150-mile House. 
Cariboo; Spreadborough saw it at Elko and Penticton, B.C. 
BREEDING NotTes.—Common near Reaburn, Manitoba, and also 
at Buffalo lake, Alberta, where both eggs and birds were taken. 
(Dip pre.) 
This species breeds with other water-fowl on all the marshes 
from Kotzebue sound to the mouth of the Kuskoquim. The eggs 
are deposited the last of May and first of June in a dry spot near 
some pond or stream, and the nest is usually lined with grass and 
feathers, the latter from the parent’s breast. (Nelson.) 
This species was found breeding plentifully near small streams 
descending from the Cypress hills and by small marshy lakes at 
Crane lake, Saskatchewan, June goth, 1894. While beating rose- 
thickets for nests the writer flushed a female off a nest containing 
ten eggs, too much incubated to be taken; shortly after, I flushed 
another, nesting in the same manner, but there were only eight 
eggs in the set, quite fresh. Both nests were under rose-bushes 
on dry ground and lined with grass and down. On the 11th June, 
in some patches of rose-bushes, I found two more nests, one having 
eleven and the other nine eggs. 
