In North- West Canada. 55 



clutches that were fresh or slightly incubated, and left those 

 that had been sat upon some days. The avosets seemed to 

 prefer to make their nests amongst the stones ; the buff and 

 white stone being similar in colour to the plumage of the birds, 

 helped to conceal them as they sat on their nests. The num- 

 ber of eerers in each nest was invariably four, and the nests 



OO * 



consisted of a hollow scraped into the sand, and lined with a 

 few blades of dry grass. The eggs vary in size, and are not 

 unlike those of the European lapwing, and upon showing them 

 to a Scotchman at Rush Lake, he exclaimed : " Why these are 

 pewitt's eggs, I used to collect lots in Scotland." But they are 

 larger than lapwing's eggs, and are easily distinguished by the 

 oologist. The ground colour is drab, buff, or olive-buff, thickly 

 spotted and blotched with dark brown and black. Some 

 clutches have a greenish olive ground, and one clutch we 

 found had a pale creamy buff ground. Some also have scratches 

 and lines as well as spots and blotches ; they average 1.95x1.35. 

 Of one hundred specimens now before me, two of the largest 

 measure 2.20x1x35 and 2.15x1.57, and two of the smallest 

 measure 1.82x1.25 and 1.87x1.30. The avosets seem to prefer 

 the alkaline lakes to those of fresh water ; they are beautiful 

 birds, with their long blue legs, and long upturned bills, which 

 look like a piece of curved whalebone. The avocet has webbed 

 feet, and is a good swimmer, and looks very singular when fly- 

 ing, with its long neck and bill stretched straight out in front, 

 and its long legs counterbalancing by being carried straight 

 out behind. We collected a number of their eggs and sucked 

 some of the fresh ones, as the water was alkaline and we were 

 thirsty, as the day was very hot, being one hundred degrees 

 in the shade. 



We were walking around the lake towards the north end, 

 when we flushed a scaup duck from its nest, and nine eggs, 

 which proved to be considerably incubated, although we 

 managed to blow them. The nest was similar to most other 

 ducks, consisting of a hole scraped in the ground and lined 

 with down, and was found amongst the coarse grass growing 

 a few yards from the waters' edge. The eggs are easily dis- 



