22 THE BIRDS OF MONTREAL. 



loral white spot larger and crescent shaped, instead 

 of oval, on the American golden-eye ; the females 

 of both species are similar in size and plumage, and 

 it is difficult to identify one from the other. A nest 

 with eggs was taken by Mr. C. C. Beattie at Mis- 

 sisquoi Bay, Lake Champlain, and the male, which 

 was shot near the nest, was identified by the late 

 Mr. Wm. Couper, taxidermist, Montreal. This 

 occurrence was recorded in " The Canadian Sport- 

 man and Naturalist," Montreal, and also mentioned 

 in " Canadian Birds," by M. Chamberlain, 1887. In 

 the early part of June, 1882, Mr. Beattie and myself 

 crossed over Missisquoi bay from Phillipsburg, P.Q., 

 to the islands on the south side in the State of Ver- 

 mont, where he took the eggs. He pointed out 

 the tree to me that contained the nest. It was a 

 tall tree, with the trunk rising about forty feet with- 

 out branches ^to that height, so that he had to nail 

 spars across the trunk, to climb the tree to the hole 

 at the top, wherein the eggs were found at some 

 depth, and the opening just large enough to allow 

 the ducks to pass in and out ; the island on which 

 the tree was growing is well wooded, and the tree 

 was near the edge of a stream dividing it from an- 

 other wooded island. There is a fine specimen of 

 this duck in the museum of the Natural History 

 Society of Montreal, but unfortunately, like many 

 other rare specimens in this museum, it bears no 

 record from where it was obtained. At the time 



