104 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



hidden in the loose material. (Nelson.) During the breeding 

 season, at Point Barrow, each pair seems to adopt a pool of its own, 

 and drives out all intruders. They breed in considerable numbers 

 all over the tundra, but the nests are scattered and not easy to find. 

 The nest is always lined with down and generally near a pool. (Mur- 

 doch.) This species breeds in great numbers in the neighbourhood 

 of Fort Anderson, along the Anderson river, on the Barren Grounds 

 and the shores of the Arctic sea. Considerably over one hundred 

 nests were taken, and the eggs varied from five to seven, the latter 

 being the maximum number recorded in any one instance. In its 

 make-up the nest is very similar to that of Dafila acuta. From pre- 

 sonal observation, also, I have come to the conclusion that the 

 usual quantity of down taken from the duck's breast depends on 

 ■ the number of eggs in the set. (Macfarlane.) Several pairs breed 

 each year on St. Paul island, Bering sea. One nest was found in 

 1897 beside a path leading to a well which was visited many times 

 during the day. The female seldom left the nest when people 

 passed along the path; indeed, no one else knew of the nest when I 

 took five eggs from it. Unless the bird were looked at she did not 

 move. I several times passed within a foot of the nest without 

 looking toward it, then walking back would look at the bird, when 

 she rose immediately. (/. M. Macoun.) Before or about the time 

 that the young are hatched and brought to the ponds by their 

 mothers, the males have forsaken their usual haunts on these and 

 have left for the open sea. This occurs early in August. The 

 nests are placed almost anywhere on the flat ground near the ponds, 

 usually on a little rise. On June 1 2th I found a nest and nine fresh 

 eggs about forty feet from the village pond on St. Paul island. It 

 was placed on a little hillock on the killing-ground. When flushed, 

 about ten feet off, the bird flew directly to its mate. Leaving the 

 eggs, I returned soon to find that she had been back, had covered 

 them completely with down and dry short grass, and returned to 

 the pond. June 17th, before 8 a.m., I found a nest — merely a few 

 pieces of short grass-stems — containing one egg. Each morning 

 thereafter at the same time I found another egg and more nest- 

 material, including, from the second morning, an addition of black 

 down, which was always placed on and around the eggs, not beneath, 

 and which was evidently from the bird's own breast. (William- 

 Palmer.) 



