CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. lOQ 



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

 saw a small flock 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 i6th 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 sea- 

 shore, usually keeping in the vicinity of a bay, an inlet, or the 

 mouth of some large stream. {Nelson.) 



MUSEUM SPECIMENS. 



Two specimens, both taken near Ottawa, Ont., in September, 

 1897. 



164. Velvet Scoter. 



Oidemia fusca (Linn.) Steph. 1824. 



Accidental (?) in Greenland. {A. 0. U. List.) 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. Flocks were seen in July 1888 off the gulf 

 coast of Prince Edward Island, and Bishop speaks of a flock 

 remaining for weeks off Grindstone Island, Magdakn Islands, in 

 1887. Reported by Audubon to breed on the east coast of 

 Labrador. 



Abundant from Moose Factory to Richmond Gulf, Hudson 

 Bay, June 1896. {Spreadborough.) It is common on the St. Law- 

 rence and frequent on the Ottawa River, and not a rare migrant 

 on Lake Ontatio and Lake Erie. 



