136 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



187. White-faced Glossy Ibis^ 



Plegadis guarauna (Linn.) Ridgw. 1878. 



Found as a rare straggler in British Columbia. Only two speci- 

 mens known to have been taken in that province; one on Salt 

 Spring island in the Gulf of Georgia, and the other at the mouth of 

 the Fraser river. {Fannin.) 



Family XVI. ARDEID^. Herons, Bitterns, &c. 



LXXII. BOTAURUS Hermann. 1783. 



190. American Bittern. 



Botaurus lentiginosus (Montag.) Steph. 1819. 



This species is only a straggler in Greenland but is a summer 

 migrant in Newfoundland and Labrador. It breeds in Prince 

 Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario 

 and northward to Hudson bay, in all suitable localities. 



Westward it becomes more abundant and is found commonly 

 from Manitoba to the Pacific, never being seen in flocks but turning 

 up in all marshes and in weedy brooks. Spreadborough found it 

 in many of the marshes between Lesser Slave lake and Peace River 

 Landing, Atha. Richardson says it is common in the interior up 

 to the fifty-eighth parallel, and Bernard Ross says it descends the 

 Mackenzie to the Arctic sea. Although it is abundant and breeds 

 in British Columbia we have no record of its occurrence in Alaska. 



Breeding Notes. — A pair breeds every year in Ashbridge bay, 

 Toronto, Ont. This species lays five eggs, occasionally six. {Raine.) 

 Breeds in the marsh on the north side of McKay lake, Ottawa and 

 in the marsh at the Experimental Farm. (W. T. Macoun.) Two 

 nests were found by me near Ottawa hidden in weeds near marshes. 

 The nests were flat, made of reeds and measured eleven inches in 

 diameter. (Garneau.) 



I have found the nest of this species four times in the county of 

 Leeds, Ont. The bird lays its eggs very regularly about the 24th 

 of May apparently being little influenced by the season, just as in 

 the case of the loon. It also has a preference for the same locality 

 year after year, even though the eggs are taken. The first three 



