FIELD NOTES IN WESTERN SWEDEN. 129 
the lake. I never identified the Mallard, Teal, or Pintail; nor 
did I find a Wigeon’s nest, though a hen Wigeon, when shot, 
showed by her bared breast, that she had already commenced the 
duties of incubation. A pair of Scaups, Fuligula marila, might 
be seen daily feeding at the mouth of the Handel, but when shot, 
on July 2nd, their plumage showed no signs of breeding. The 
drake wore the usual nuptial dress; his mate was an interesting 
bird, exhibiting very little freckling on the back, and having the 
white under parts closely mottled with brown feathers, producing 
a marbled appearance. 
Goldeneyes came flying up the river to fish every evening, 
and I often saw them at other times, but never came across a 
nest. When [I first arrived, Common Scoters, Gidemia nigra, 
were numerous on the lake, swimming in flocks of from fifteen to 
twenty birds. I found a full nest of the Common Scoter within 
a few feet of the water; it was placed under cover of a drooping 
fir-branch, and resembled that of the Mallard. I also found some 
sucked eggs of this species. The Velvet Scoters, . fusca, had 
already paired when I first saw them on June 11th, but it was not 
until the 18th that I found a nest of this duck on a small island 
_ overgrown with bilberry. The nest, composed of down and dry 
leaves, was placed at the foot of a stump of mountain-ash—rather 
an exposed situation, but the eggs were slightly covered up. 
I shot a female Velvet Scoter off another nest a few days later ; 
_ this was placed under a low branch of birch, and contained eight 
eggs. Two drakes which I shot on the lake at the same time 
were in full nuptial dress, and showed no signs of eclipse. They 
are strong birds, very tenacious of life, and hard to kill. Red- 
breasted Mergansers, Mergus serrator, were common, and nested 
freely on the islands, concealing their nests beneath long, trailing 
branches of firs close to the water. I shot a couple of drakes in 
full eclipse in the middle of June. 
The prevalence of marshes near Lake Ann raised premature 
hopes that we should meet with some of the rarer waders, and 
had time enabled us to explore the morasses carefully we should 
no doubt have been rewarded. Cranes were observed, but only as 
passing over us, nor did the Red-necked Phalaropes, Phalaropus 
hyperboreus, prolong their visit to the lake beyond a day or two, 
when we watched them floating quietly on the water. 
Golden Plovers, of course, nested on the fells, and Woodcocks 
