BIRDS OF NORTHERN CANADA 293 



4. American Eaeed Geebe — Oolymhus nigricollis 

 calif omicus (Heerman). 



An egg of this grebe was also taken by Mr. Simpson on 

 the above occasion, and while he felt disappointed at his 

 failure to shoot the observed parent, he was satisfied that it 

 was one of this kind, and for the reason that he had secured 

 a sample of the eggs of the three species of Colymhidce which 

 frequent Green Lake during the annual season of nidifica- 

 tion. I never met with an example thereof in course of my 

 five years' stay at Fort Anderson; but there is reason, how- 

 ever, to suspect that it is a summer resident at most of the 

 other southern points herein noted. 



In his list of birds observed in the Mackenzie River 

 District, the late Chief Trader Bernard R. Ross states that 

 this species extends to Great Slave Lake, where he obtained 

 its eggs about 1860. 



Professor Macoun also states that this species breeds in 

 colonies or groups of a dozen or more nests, and that he has 

 " often looked down on them in the small lakes of the interior 

 as they sat in their nests with the water all around them. 

 The floating nests were almost on a level with 'the water. 

 No down or feathers were ever seen about a grebe's nest. 

 Each of these contained from three to four eggs, usually the 

 smaller number. It also breeds in sloughs in many parts of 

 the prairie region and British Columbia, including lakes 

 near Kamloops, in that Province." In the Ottawa Museum 

 there are three skin specimens, and three sets of five eggs 

 each, taken by Mr. W. Spreadborough, the former in Mani- 

 toba and British Columbia in 1889, and the latter at Crane 

 Lake, June lith, 1889. 



7. Loon — Oavia imber (Gunn). 



On 15th June, 1889, the late Mr. Charles, Ogden, at 

 that time in charge of Fort George, New Caledonia, found 

 two nests, each holding two eggs. They were built on two 

 very small turfy islets on the border of a small lake some 



