132 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



and their eggs were often placed among fragments of drift-wood 

 below the mark of the highest tides. Stray pairs were found nesting 

 further inland in the marshy meadows also frequented by other 

 species of geese, but on the salt-flats, near tide-water, the emperor 

 goose held undisputed possession. The majority of the nests found 

 contained from three to five eggs, the full complement ranging from 

 five to eight. As the complement of eggs approached completion 

 the parent made a soft bed of fine grass, leaves, and feathers plucked 

 from her own breast. As a rule, when driven from her eggs, the 

 female flew straight away and alighted at some distance, sometimes 

 half a mile from the nest, showing very little concern. (Nelson.) 



LXIX. DENDROCYGNA Swainson. 1837. 



178. Fulvous Tree-duck. 



Dendrocygna fulva (Gmel.) Burmeister, 1856. 



In the Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, Vol. VI, 1861, p. 334, 

 there is what must stand as a good record of the fulvous tree-duck 

 in British Columbia. In an article entitled "Recollections of the 

 Swans and Geese of Hudson bay" Mr. George Ba.rnston says: 



"Two small species of southwest habitat, the Dendrocygna autum- 

 nalis and D. fulva never come north, as far as I know. I have 

 never seen the first, but have shot one out of a pair of the latter on 

 the banks of the Colfimbia above Okanagan. This I daresay is 

 usually its limit to the north, and I believe it has never been seen 

 to the eastward of the great stony ridge. Neither of these elegant 

 little geese ever visit Hudson bay." (/. H. Fleming.) 



In September, 1905, Mr. J. S. Rollins saw eleven fulvous tree- 

 ducks on the flats near New Alberni, Vancouver island and shot five 

 of them. One specimen is in the provincial museum at Victoria 

 (Spreadborough.) 



LXX. OLOR Wagler. 1832. 



179. Whooping Swan. 



Olor cygnus (Linn.) Bonaparte. 1856. 

 Occasional irt southern Greenland. (.4 .0. U. List.) 



