BIEDS OF NOETHEKN CANADA 307 



was shot near Cumberland House. This duck undoubtedly 

 breeds at both places and also along the lower Saskatchewan 

 River ; but it is not common in the northern portion of the 

 Canadian continent, especially in the Anderson region of 

 Arctic America, where we found it very rare, as but two 

 examples, minus eggs, were obtained during our five seasons' 

 residence at Fort Anderson. 



Mr. Eoss claims that he secured its ^gs in 1861. 



Professor Macoun also states that on 9th June, 1894, 

 while beating rose thickets for nests, he flushed a female off 

 her nest, containing ten eggs, too much incubated to be taken. 

 Shortly after he flushed another, but there were only eight 

 ^gs in the set, quite fresh. Both nests were under rose 

 bushes on dry ground, and lined with grass and down. Two 

 days later he found two more nests in a similar position, one 

 having eleven and the other nine eggs. The Museum at the 

 Capital holds eight specimens and several sets of eggs. 



1.43. PiiiTTAiL — Dafila acuta (Linn.). 



Two skins of this abundant and widely distributed 

 species were obtained from Fond du Lac, Athabasca, where 

 it breeds, and they were sent to Dr. Bell. Its eggs not being 

 considered as desiderata at Washington, no effort was made 

 by us to secure any in Athabasca, New Caledonia, or Cum- 

 berland. We found this duck very numerous in the Ander- 

 son Eiver country, as well as on the coast shores of Liverpool 

 and Franklin bays. A similar remark would prove equally 

 applicable to the eggs of several species of duck, and also 

 to a number of other well-known land and water birds of 

 Worth America. 



It may be of some little interest to report that the nest 

 is usually a small cavity or depression in the ground, lined 

 with down, withered leaves, and a few feathers, and that it 

 lays from six to eight eggs, which are larger than those of 

 the shoveller. The nest is generally in the neighbourhood of 

 a land-locked sheet of water. The parents desert their nests 



