BIEDS OF XOETHERX CAX^iDA 303 



the district, as well as in Athabasca. At Cumiberland House 

 and Pelican Xarrows it is also present for a like purpose, 

 while several nests, as just mentioned, were forwarded to the 

 Smithsonian Institution from Fort Anderson. Mr. Ross 

 reports them as common on the Mackenzie to Peel's River. 



The nest of this merganser is usually well concealed, and 

 the eggs are of a creamy buff colour, resembling those of 

 M. americanus. The Ottawa Museum has but three skins, 

 and the eggs of several nests taken by Mr. Low in Labrador, 

 in Jime, 1894! 



131. Hooded Mergansee — Lophodytes cucullatus (Linn.). 



An example bird, well identified, was shot near Cumber- 

 land House in the spring of 1891. It is a rare bird in that 

 quarter, as well as in the Mackenzie River district, where 

 Chief Trader Bernard R. Ross found no traces thereof be- 

 yond Fort Resolution, Great Slave Lake. Said to be fairly 

 common in British Columbia and northern Manitoba. 



The Ottawa Museum holds seven specimens, taken at 

 Toronto, Ottawa, Indian Head, Banff, and Kamloops, but 

 no eggs thereof ! 



132. Mallaed — Anas ioschas (Linn.). 



A male skin of this duck was obtained at Fort Resolu- 

 tion, and that of a female from Fond du Lac, Athabasca, 

 in 1885, which were later packed up and forwarded to Dr. 

 BeU. In 1882 Mr. Scott Simpson found a nest containing 

 three eggs at Green Lake, English River district, of which 

 Mr. John Dalgleish became the recipient the following sea- 

 son. Mrs. W. C. King, then of Moose Lake post, Cumber- 

 land District, secured, with both parents, a nest holding six 

 eggs, early in the month of June, 1890. The mallard is 

 very abundant, especially throughout all copiously-watered 

 land sections on both banks of the Saskatchewan River to 

 its outlet in Lake Winnipeg. It is also very numerous in 

 the vicinity of Fort ChipevTyan, and in the deltas of the 

 Athabasca, Slave and Mackenzie rivers. 

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