OLD CROW 161 



Gavia stellata (Pontoppidan) 



Red-tliroated loons were not recorded as satisfactorily identified by 

 sight or call in flight until June 2, which was probably later than the 

 first arrivals. These loons were less frequently identified than common 

 loons on the river and none were noticed on the small lakes which were 

 visited. Speciments were obtained in 1958. 



Family PODICIPEDIDAE: Grebes 

 Podiceps grisegena holbollii Reinhardt 



6 fresh eggs June 15 



4 slightly incubated June 23 



eggs 



The first evidence of red-necked grebes, which the Indians call 

 Tekkin, was the distant sight of the head and neck of one among the 

 Equisetum at the margin of a small lake on June 13. The bird had 

 disappeared when the spot was reached, but a nest was found on the 

 floating clods of mud from a muskrat push up, with three eggs lying 

 partially in the water. The eggs felt warm. Two days later two addi- 

 tional eggs were found in the nest, so that the first eggs must have been 

 laid about Jmie 11. The other parent was seen, but neither could be 

 approached within a quarter of a mile. A second nest was found by 

 Irwin Linklater at a similar site in another lake. Red-necked grebes 

 were rarely seen on the river and those which were seen were shy. 



Red-necked and horned grebes have now been reported near the 

 northern border of the forest at Old Crow and in central and western 

 arctic Alaska. 



Podiceps auritus cornutus Cmelin 



1 female May 19 366 g. very fat egg 4 mm. 



Two horned grebes were watched on the slough near the village 

 on May 19 and on the same day one was collected for us by Philippe 

 Dicquemare. The size of the egg which it contained suggested that the 

 female was approaching readiness to lay at a date earlier than eggs 

 of red-necked grebes were found. Horned grebes, known by the In- 

 dians as Notsik, were occasionally seen along the Porcupine River, 

 where they were less shy than red-necked grebes and more frequently 

 noticed. 



Family ANATIDAE: Swans, Geese, Ducks 



Olor columbianus (Ord) 



At Old Crow village Father Mouchet reported that he had seen 

 a swan flying up the river on June 3. Peter Lord and other local resi- 

 dents knew swans well and said that they had not seen many near 

 the village and only a few on Crow Flats, where no groups larger 



