292 THKOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN" 



2. Holbcell's Grebe — Colymbus holboelli (Reinhardt). 



Early in June, 1880, Chief Trader W. Scott Simpson, 

 then stationed in charge of Green Lake Post, English River 

 District, Province of Saskatchewan, discovered a nest of 

 this grebe — constructed in the usual water-hen manner — a 

 mass of semi-floating rushes on the margin of a compara- 

 tively small sheet of water. 



My notes record but two nests of this species — one con- 

 taining four and the other five eggs — and both were found 

 at a distance of some forty or fifty miles south of Fort 

 Anderson. 



Breeds throughout Northern British Columbia; in fact, 

 from latitude 50° N. to the Polar Sea. There are but four 

 akin specimens, and one set of seven eggs taken June 10th, 

 1892, in a small lake at Indian Head, Saskatchewan, by Mr. 

 W. Spreadborough, in the Ottawa Museum! In colour the 

 eggs of this grebe are of a rather soiled or dirty white. 



3. HoENED Geebe — Colymbus auritus (Linnaeus). 



About the same time, in June, 1880, Mr. Simpson found 

 a nest of this species with one egg therein. He failed to 

 secitre the parent bird, which was seen and fired at. Although 

 no specimens were obtained in Athabasca District, at Cum- 

 berland House, or in New Caledonia, it is fairly abundant 

 in those sections of North-western Canada; but it is only 

 sparingly represented on the upper Anderson Kiver, Arctic 

 America, where a nest holding five eggs was taken in June, 

 1866. 



The Dominion Museum at Ottawa has six skins repre- 

 senting this species, together with two sets of eggs of eight 

 and nine respectively, taken by Mr. W. Spreadborough at 

 Crane Lake on 12th and 15th June, 1894, Mr. Macoun 

 does not think they breed in colonies like No. 1 of the 

 series. 



