164 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA 



common in Manitoba, but tlie writer has never seen it nor heard 

 of its being seen west of that province. It seems to be common 

 in summer on Hudson Bay and along the Arctic coast generally, 

 especially in northern Alaska, where it breeds in great numbers, 

 but never far from the sea. Both Brooks and Fannin speak of 

 this species as being common qn the British Columbia coast in 

 spring and fall. 



Breeding Notes. — This bird breeds plentifully on the Arctic 

 coast. Its eggs are oil-green marked with irregular spots of liver- 

 brown, of different sizes and shades, confluent at the obtuse end. 

 {Richardson.) This species is common at Point Barrow, Alaska, 

 and breeds abundantly, although the nest is exceedingly hard to 

 find as the nesting birds are very wary and use every possible 

 strategem to mislead one when looking for the eggs. It 

 arrives about the end of May. Some of them, perhaps, arrive 

 paired, but the majority are pairing soon after their arrival, to 

 judge by their actions. As the tundra gradually clears of snow 

 they become more scattered and spread further inland, deserting 

 the shores of the beach lagoons, although they hardly confine 

 themselves as much to the dry portions of the tundra as Baird's 

 Sandpiper is in the habit of doing. The nest, which is like that 

 of all the rest of the waders, is always placed in the grass, some- 

 times in dry and sometimes in rather swampy places, but never 

 like the Phalaropes, on the black tundra or on the isthmuses be- 

 tween the ponds. Both parents share in the work of incubation, 

 though we happened to obtain more males than females with the 

 eggs. {Murdoch.) 



In early seasons the first of these birds reach the Yukon mouth 

 and shores of Norton Sound by the loth of May, and by the 25th 

 of that month they are in full force. They arrive in full breeding 

 plumage, and are generally in small flocks, which soon break up 

 and the birds scatter in twos and threes over the moss and grass- 

 grown tundra to pair and attend to their summer duties. They 

 nest from the first of June to the first of July, and in 1877,1 secur- 

 ed a set of four fresh eggs on the 3rd of the latter month. They 

 generally choose some dry knoll, or other slight elevation, over 

 looking the neighbouring lakes and pools. Here, upon a bed of' 

 last year's grasses, but without the trouble of arranging a formal 

 nest, the female deposits three or four large eggs of a pale green- 

 ish varying to pale brownish clay colour, with dull chocolate and 

 umber-brown spots and blotches. {Nelson.) 



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