76 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



east end of Lake Ontario, on islands, on the 27th June, 1896, 

 and on the 30th June the same year. On the first occasion I had 

 landed on a rocky island, and while passing some cedars a mer- 

 ganser flew from underneath. I concluded there was a nest and 

 by searching soon found it, containing six eggs. This nest was 

 well hidden away among thick branches of cedar, and was found 

 in a depression of the rock, it was made of dried grass and well 

 lined with down of the bird. Incubation had commenced seven 

 or eight days. The other nest was in a somewhat similar position, 

 well concealed in a dry place among the rocks, perhaps ten feet 

 above the water; this one contained ten eggs, and was precisely 

 as the first. This species is very common on the Magdalen islands 

 in summer. I saw numbers of them in June, 1897, and obtained 

 fresh eggs on the 22nd of that month. They select there an 

 island or dry spot around the brackish pools at the northeast 

 point of the island, and the eggs were deposited in precisely the 

 same way as those found on Lake Ontario. {Rev. C.J. Young.) 

 This bird builds a nest of dry grass, warmly lined with down 

 and feathers. The eggs, nine or more in number, are of a creamy 

 buff colour. From a nest situated at the Lake of the Woods, ten 

 young were successfully hatched on the 20th June, 1897, the young 

 birds were as large as a quail. {G. R. White.) 



Several nests of this, not particularly numerous merganser, were 

 obtained in the vicinity of Fort Anderson, and also in the wooded 

 parts on both sides of the river, north and south of the post. 

 One was found on the borders of the " Barrens," to the east, under 

 a fallen tree, close to a small lake. It was a scooped-out hole, 

 lined «ith feathers and down and contained six eggs. Ten was 

 the maximum number taken in a nest. {Macfarlane .) 



XLIV. LOPHODYTES Reichenbach. 1852. . 



131. Hooded Merganser. 



Lophodytes cucullatus (Linn.) Reich. 1852. 



This species is reported as a spring and autumn migrant along 

 the Atlantic coast from New Brunswick to Labrador and in Que- 

 bec and Ontario. We have no records of its breeding in any of 

 these provinces, except that an Ottawa writer says it is '' kn.^wn 

 to breed"; and Mr. Elliott, of Plover Mills, Middlesex co., Ont., 



