96 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 
frequently at the point of some small jutting cape, and so near the 
water that the parent can swim-to and from the nest. The eggs are 
large for the size of the bird, and rarely exceed eight in number. 
The nest is composed of dry grass-stems, gathered close at hand, 
and a largely fluffy bed of down plucked from the parent’s breast. 
The first week in June is the time usually chosen for depositing the 
first eggs, but some are not laid until nearly a month later. (Nelson.) 
149. Lesser Scaup Duck, Blue-bill. 
Aythya affinis. (EyYT.) STEJN. 1885. 
A pair was shot in June on Inosusulik, an islet about ten miles 
from Egedesminde; it may breed in Greenland. (Arct. Man.) 
A male and a female taken-in Greenland in 1872 and a female in 
1891. (Winge.) Breeds in large numbers on Nottingham island 
in Hudson strait; and at Churchill and York Factory, Hudson 
bay. (Dr. R. Bell.) One killed at Humber river, Newfoundland. 
(Louis H. Porter.) A rare summer migrant in Nova Scotia. Once 
captured a brood of young ones on Grand lake. (Downs.) In 
New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario, this is only a migrant, and 
I strongly suspect that some of the breeding stations mentioned 
are those of the greater scaup, which is certainly a more eastern 
bird than this species. It is one of the commonest ducks in the 
prairie region and northward to the very edge of the Barren Grounds. 
It breeds in all the ponds and by the little lakes from lat. 49° to the 
Arctic circle and beyond. Nelson says this is a very rare straggler 
in Alaska. Bishop saw a pair with young on a small pond at Lower 
Labarge, Yukon river. Fannin and Brooks report it tolerably 
common in British Columbia. The latter says it winters on Lake 
Okanagan, B.C. 
BREEDING NoTes.—This species was first seen at Deep lake, 
Indian Head, Sask., on April 16th, 1892, at which time eight indi- 
viduals were observed; they very shortly after came in great num- 
bers, and a pair shot had their stomachs full of water-insects, which 
are very abundant in the lake. On June 23rd found a nest contain- 
ing nine eggs. The nest was in the middle of a “slough” in a mass 
of last year’s rushes (Scirpus lacustris), lined with down from the 
bird’s own breast. (Spreadborough.) Three sets of eggs taken at 
Burnt lake, Alberta, June 14th and 15th, 1896; breeds also in Mani- 
toba, but nowhere common. (D1ppie.) 
