CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 103 
them very common in Wales sound, Hudson strait, reaching there 
about June 1st, 1885. Common in the gulf and river St. Lawrence 
and westward to Lake Ontario, and occasionally as far west as 
London, Ont. Fleming records one as having been taken at Port 
Sydney, Parry Sound, and several were picked up on the ice at Beau- 
maris, Muskoka, in 1899. Raine reports that in the winter of 1898 
thousands of these ducks might have been seen any day in Toronto 
harbour. A single specimen said by Atkinson to be the only one of 
this species known to have been recorded from Manitoba was col- 
lected at Whitehead lake, southern Manitoba, by Mr. H. W. O. 
Boger. 
Spreadborough observed a few at Lesser Slave lake in May, 1903, 
and Richardson, Ross and Macfarlane report it breeding along the 
Arctic coast, and Macfarlane says it breeds in large numbers on the 
Anderson river. Several sets of eggs were taken on Herschell island 
for Mr. Raine by the missionaries Stringer and Whittaker. Turner, 
Nelson and Murdoch say that this is a common duck from the 
mouth of the Mackenzie westward all around the whole coast of 
Alaska. It winters along the entire Aleutian chain and down the 
Pacific coast of British Columbia, where Fannin says it is frequent 
in winter. 
BREEDING Notres.—This bird is a sea-duck, breeding northerly. 
A clutch of seven eggs in my collection was taken at the mouth 
of Mackenzie river June 20th, 1894. The nest was built on the 
ground under a small willow. (Raze.) The long-tailed duck was 
common on Ellsemere island and its nest was often found near fresh- 
water lakes. (E. Bay.) 
From the Yukon delta along the coast, in each direction, their 
nests are almost invariably placed in close proximity to a pond 
or tide-creek—the sloping grassy bank of the ponds being a favorite 
situation. The earliest set of eggs secured by me numbered five 
and was taken on May 18th at St. Michael. From that date until 
the end of June fresh eggs may be taken, but the majority of the 
young are out by the last of that month. The parents always 
keep in the immediate neighbourhood of the nest and swim about 
in the nearest pond when the nest is approached. An unusual 
amount of dry grass-stems, and down plucked from the parent’s 
breast, compose the nest, and if the eggs are left they are carefully 
