CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 107 
LX. POLYSTICTA Evron. | 1836. 
157. Steller Duck, 
Polysticta stellerr (PALL.) EyTONn. 1836. 
Recorded in the east only from Disco bay, Greenland, from Cum- 
berland sound and from Godbout and Point des Monts, Quebec. 
The Godbout specimen was secured by Mr. N. A. Comeau in Feb., 
1898. Previous to that time Mr. Comeau had noticed individual 
birds, which he did not recognize, among flocks of well known 
species. After examining the Steller eider he came to the conclu- 
sion that the birds formerly seen by him were that species. A more 
detailed account of the occurrence of this bird was published by 
Mr. A. K. Fisher in The Auk, Vol. XVM, p. 65. 
Throughout the Aleutian chain it is a common resident, very 
abundant in winter, but less common in summer. It also breeds 
upon St. Lawrence island and a nest has been taken on Unalaska. 
(Nelson.) This duck is rare at St. Michael; on the southern and 
eastern shores of Bristol bay and the northern shores of Alaska it 
is plentiful. Among the Aleutian islands it is rarely seen in sum- 
mer, in winter it abounds at Unalaska. (Turner.) This beautiful 
little duck is far from a rare bird during the late spring and summer 
at Point Barrow and vicinity. Their breeding ground appears to 
be some distance off, as they leave to breed about the end of June. 
(Murdoch.) 
BREEDING Notes.—Dall says the pairing season of this species, 
in Alaska, commences about May tst, and thence through the 
breeding season they are found in pairs. He also states that if a 
nest is visited it is abandoned at once. He found a nest on May 
18th, 1872, on a flat part of a small island near Unalaska. It was 
built between two tussocks of dry grass, and the depression was 
carefully lined with the same material. The nest was entirely con- 
cealed by overhanging grasses, and was revealed only by the bird 
flying out at his feet. -The nest contained a single egg. (Nelson.) 
LXI. ARCTONETTA Gray. 1855. 
158. Spectacled Hider. 
Arctonetta fischeri (BRANDT) BLAKISTON. 1863. 
The spectacled eider has until very recently been credited with 
a very restricted range on the Bering sea coast of Alaska. My 
