IIl4 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 
Along the Alaskan shores of Bering sea and Kotzebue sound 
these scoters are abundant summer residents. They breed abund- 
antly about the mouth of the Yukon and at other suitable localities 
around the various islands. (Nelson.) This species breeds at St. 
Michael, but more abundantly further up the coast; among the 
Aleutian islands it is to be found throughout the year. (Turner.) 
Noticed a few in Wrangell narrows and saw a number off Unalaska, 
Alaska. (Bishop.) It is not a common visitor in British Columbia, 
but it has been found on the coast and in the interior by Fannin, 
who saw a sinall flock on May roth, 1891, at 108-mile House on the 
Cariboo road. ; 
BrEeEDING Notes.—At the mouth of the Yukon, Dall found a 
nest of this species in a bunch of willows on a small island, on June 
17th. It contained two white and rather large eggs, and was well 
lined with dry grass, leaves, moss and feathers. At St. Michael 
these ducks are never seen until the ice begins to break up off shore. 
May 16th is about the earliest date of arrival I have recorded. The 
mating is quickly accomplished, and a nesting-site chosen on the 
border of some pond. ‘The spot is artfully hidden in the standing 
grass, and the eggs, if left by the parent, are carefully covered with 
grass and moss. As the set of eggs is completed, the male gradually 
loses interest in the female, and deserts her to join great flocks of 
his kind along the seashore, usually keeping in the vicinity of a bay, 
an inlet, or the mouth of some large stream. (Nelson.) 
164. Velvet Scoter. 
Oidemia fusca (LINN.) STEPH. 1824. 
Collected in south Greenland and now in Copenhagen museum. 
(Winge.) 
165. White-winged Scoter. 
Oidemia deglandt BONAP. 1850. 
Common around Newfoundland and may breed; a winter migrant 
around Nova Scotia and a migrant in spring and autumn in the 
Bay of Fundy. Tufts says a few males spend the summer along the 
Nova Scotia coast. Flocks were seen in July, 1888, off the gulf 
coast of Prince Edward island, and Bishop speaks of a flock remain- 
