114 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



Along the Alaskan shores of Bering sea and Kotzebue sound 

 these scoters are abundant summer residents. They breed abund- 

 antly about the mouth of the Yukon and at other suitable localities 

 around the various islands. (Nelson.) This species breeds at St. 

 Michael, but more abundantly further up the coast; among the 

 Aleutian islands it is to be found throughout the year. (Turner.) 

 Noticed a few in Wrangell narrows and saw a number off Unalaska, 

 Alaska. (Bishop.) It is not a common visitor in British Columbia^ 

 but it has been found on the coast and in the interior by Fannin, 

 who saw a small fiock on May loth, 1891, at 108-mile House on the 

 Cariboo road. 



Breeding Notes. — At the mouth of the Yukon, Dall found a 

 nest of this species in a bunch of willows on a small island, on June 

 17th. It contained two white and rather large eggs, and was well 

 lined with dry grass, leaves, moss and feathers. At St. Michael 

 these ducks are never seen until the ice begins to break up off shore. 

 May 1 6th is about the earliest date of arrival I have recorded. The 

 mating is quickly accomplished, and a nesting-site chosen on the 

 border of some pond. The spot is artfully hidden in the standing 

 grass, and the eggs, if left by the parent, are carefully covered with 

 grass and moss. As the set of eggs is completed, the male gradually 

 loses interest in the female, and deserts her to join great flocks of 

 his kind along the seashore, usually keeping in the vicinity of a bay, 

 an inlet, or the mouth of some large stream. (Nelson.) 



164. Velvet Scoter. 



Oidemia fusca (Linn.) Steph. 1824. 



Collected in south Greenland and now in Copenhagen museum. 

 (Winge.) 



165. White-winged Scoter. 



Oidemia deglandi Bonap. 1850. 



Common around Newfoundland and may breed ; a winter migrant 

 around Nova Scotia and a migrant in spring and autumn in the 

 Bay of Fundy. Tufts says a few males spend the summer along the 

 Nova Scotia coast. Flocks were seen in July, 1888, off the gulf 

 coast of Prince Edward island, and Bishop speaks of a flock remain- 



