104 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 
hidden in the loose material. (Nelson.) During the breeding | 
season, at Point Barrow, each pair seems to adopt a pool of its own, 
and drives out all intruders. They breed in considerable numbers 
all over the tundra, but the nests are scattered and not easy to find. 
The nest is always lined with down and generally near a pool. (Muwr- 
doch.) This species breeds in great numbers in the neighbourhood 
of Fort Anderson, along the Anderson river, on the Barren Grounds 
and the shores of the Arctic sea. Considerably over one hundred 
nests were taken, and the eggs varied from five to seven, the latter 
being the maximum number recorded in any one instance. In its 
make-up the nest is very similar to that of Dafila acuta. From pre- 
sonal observation, also, I have come to the conclusion that the 
usual quantity of down taken from the duck’s breast depends on 
the number of eggs in the set. (Macfarlane.) Several pairs breed 
each year on St. Paul island, Bering sea. One nest was found in 
1897 beside a path leading to a well which was visited many times 
during the day. The female seldom left the nest when people 
passed along the path; indeed, no one else knew of the nest when I 
took five eggs from it. Unless the bird were looked at she did not 
move. I several times passed within a foot of the nest without 
looking toward it, then walking back would look at the bird, when 
she rose immediately. (J. MW. Macoun.) Before or about the time 
that the young are hatched and brought to the ponds by their 
mothers, the males have forsaken their usual haunts on these and 
have left for the open sea. This occurs early in August. The 
nests are placed almost anywhere on the flat ground near the ponds, 
usually on a little rise. On June r2th I found a nest and nine fresh 
eggs about forty feet from the village pond on St. Paul island. It 
was placed on a little hillock on the killing-ground. When flushed, 
about ten feet off, the bird flew directly to its mate. Leaving the 
eggs, I returned soon to find that she had been back, had covered 
them completely with down and dry short grass, and returned to 
the pond. June 17th, before 8 a.m., I found a nest—merely a few 
pieces of short grass-stems—containing one egg. Each morning 
thereafter at the same time I found another egg and more nest- 
material, including, from the second morning, an addition of black 
down, which was always placed on and around the eggs, not beneath, 
and which was evidently from the bird’s own breast. (William 
Palmer.) 
