92 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



On the Magdalen Islands in June, 1897, I met with this species 

 at East Cape, Grosse Isle, breeding, and secured its eggs. A 

 few pairs breed on the small, boggy islands in the large ponds, 

 not far from the sand -banks that separate these ponds from 

 the sea. The eggs are about the size of those of the Merganser, 

 but are more of a buff colour, and their peculiar shape, which 

 is almost invariable, best distinguishes them. They are not 

 laid until late in June. A correspondent wrote me about two 

 nests he found in July, after I left the islands, as follows : — 

 " I found a Blue-bill's nest in a sti'ange place, after you left me. 

 It was in a bunch of rushes at the head of the bay, growing in 

 water that took me up to my middle to reach them. There were 

 two nests, one with two and the other with five eggs. The two 

 were fresh and the others badly incubated." {Rev. C.J. Young.) 

 A' very common migrant. A few pairs breed at St. Clair Flats. 

 {W. Saunders.) Both the Greater and Lesser Scaups breed at Crane 

 Lake and in and near the adjoining marshes. On June iSth, 1894, 

 the writer found a nest of this species, containing ten eggs, it was 

 in a hole in the ground and lined with feathers and grass. Three 

 days later another nest of eleven eggs was taken under the same 

 conditions. In a marsh on the 14th a large nest containing eleven 

 eggs was found among rushes {Scirpus lacustris) ; nine of these 

 belonged to the Scaup, and two larger and quite blue eggs were 

 referred to the Canvas-back. Passing out of the rushes I flushed 

 another Scaup out of the grass and found a nest made of dried 

 grass and lined on the sides with down. This nest contained 

 twelve eggs, and still another had twenty-one fresh eggs, 

 evidently of three species — Lesser Scaup, Red-head and Ruddy 

 Duck. 



MUSEUM SPECIMENS. 



One male, taken in Toronto marsh by Mr. S. Herring. 



One set of six eggs, taken on James Bay, near Whale River, 

 June i6th, 1896, by Mr. W. Spreadborough. 



149. Lesser Scaup Duck. Blue-bill. 



Aythya affinis (Eyt.) Stejn. 1885. 



A pair was shot in June on Inosusulik, an islet about ten miles 

 from Egedesminde ; it may breed in Greenland. {Arct. Man.) 

 A male and a female taken in Greenland in 1872 and a female in 



