8 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



MUSEUM SPECIMENS. 



One specimen of this species is in the collection, taken at Ot- 

 awa, by Mr. Whitcher, in 1884. One set of the eggs taken on the 

 Jpper Hamilton River, Labrador, by Mr. A. P. Low, May 25th. 

 894. Another set of seven from Wolfville, N.S., taken May 27th, 

 898, by Harold F. Tufts. 



XLVn. CHAULELASMUS Bonaparte. 1838. 



35. Gadwell. Grey Duck. 



Chaulelasmus strepera (Linn.) Bonap. 1838. 



This species is rarely seen during the migration along the 

 Atlantic Coast ; it is also rare in Quebec and Ontario, and Mcll- 

 fraith says that the pair in his collection are the only ones he has 

 eard of being taken in the latter province, though the bird has 

 een shot at Ottawa by Mr. W. F. Whitcher. 



Mcllwraith in his " Birds of Ontario," page 70, seems to doubt 

 ly statement that they are " abundant throughout the interior." 

 le says they are nowhere abundant and no person has made that 

 tatement but myself. Dr. Elliott Coues, in writing of the birds 

 bserved by him on the International Boundary says : " Abun- 

 ant throughout the region, where it breeds, like nearly all the 

 InatifuB. Young still unfledged were observed late in August." 

 found them abundant on the prairie in 1880, but in the wooded 

 ountry in 1881 shot only one specimen. This is the species that 

 reeds almost exclusively in the prairie region, and more than 

 alf the nests seen in 1895 in making a traverse from the boundary 

 f Manitoba to the Rocky Mountains were of this species. This 

 nd the Lesser Scaup were the common ducks of the southern 

 rairie. Richardson says it breeds in numbers to Lat. 68°, and 

 lacfarlane says he believes it breeds as far north as Anderson 

 .iver. 



It is generally a rare bird in Alaska and British Columbia, 

 ut Turner reports it common in summer in the Yukon Delta. 



Breeding Notes. — A pair of this species reached Deep Lake, 

 idian Head, Assa., on April i8th, 1892, and by May 6th they 

 ere common ; on June 24th found a nest on a small island in the 

 :ke, containing eight eggs. It was made of dry grass lined with 

 own from the female's own breast. In 1895, nests of this species 



