CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. IOI 
from a hole in a dead Douglas fir, fifty feet from the ground, pro- 
bably the deserted nest of a flying squirrel. The tree stood about 
four hundred yards from the nearest water. I saw another nesting 
hole but was unable to reach it. The female brought fourteen 
young ones from this. (Brooks.) 
LVI. CHARITONETTA STEJNEGER. 1885. 
153. Buffle-head. Spirit Duck. 
Charitonetta albeola. (LINN.) STEJN. 1885. 
One taken in 1827 at Godthavn and another at Frederikshaab in 
1891. (Winge.) Rare migrant in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. 
Chamberlain says it is a common resident in New Brunswick, and 
supposes it breeds there. Rather common migrant in Quebec and 
Ontario, and reported by Saunders to breed rarely in the Bruce 
peninsula. This species, like the golden-eye, prefers the vicinity 
of lakes and deep ponds and river valleys where there is timber. It 
is a summer resident in all the forest country from Manitoba north- 
westerly to the Rocky mountains, northeasterly to Hudson bay, 
and according to Ross descends the Mackenzie river to the Arctic 
sea. Nelson and Turner report it “as a rare bird in Alaska, but 
more common on the upper Yukon where it was also found by 
Bishop. Streator, Fannin, Spreadborough and Brooks report it 
common and breeding in British Columbia, and wintering on the 
coast, and the latter says it winter’s on Lake Okanagan, B.C. 
BREEDING NoTes.—Rare in Alberta but breeds there. Three 
downy young were shot June 20th, and five more June 22nd, 1896, 
at a small lake about eight miles northwest of Red Deer, Alberta. 
(Dippie.) Breeds throughout northwestern Canada. One of the 
rarer ducks. I have both eggs and young taken in the downy 
stage at Long lake, Manitoba. A set of seven eggs in my collection 
was taken out of a tree at Long lake. It appears that when trees 
are scarce, as along the Missouri Coteau in Saskatchewan, this bird 
will lay its eggs in a hole in a bank as the belted kingfisher does. 
There are no trees in that part of Saskatchewan, which accounts for 
this little duck laying its twelve eggs at the end of a gopher burrow, 
in a bank along the side of a small lake one mile north of Rush lake. 
Another clutch of ten eggs was taken out of a hole in a tree at Oak 
