312 THROUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



berland, but also on one or two occasions at Eort Anderson. 

 It is said to " prefer nesting in trees at a height of from 

 fifteen to twenty-five feet from the ground. The nest is 

 composed of grass, leaves and moss lined with feathers. The 

 eggs, eight or more in number, are of an ashy green colour. 

 It lays about the middle of May or later." Mr. Koss states 

 that it extends to the Arctic coast and is not rare. There is 

 only one skin, and two sets of eggs, taken at Indian Head, 

 in June, 1892, in the Ottawa collection! 



152. ' Baeeow's GoLDEif Eye — Clangula islandica (Gmelin). 



I must here quote the note made under this duck head- 

 ing in the 1891 referred-to paper : " Although an individual 

 bird of this species was shot by Mr. Murdo McLeod in the 

 vicinity of Eort Anderson on 29th June, 1863, and a male 

 example obtained there on 14th June, 1864, yet our best 

 efforts failed to discover a single nest in that or any other 

 quarter, and I think it may be classed among the rarest of 

 the duoks visiting that region." Nor have we since then, 

 to my knowledge, ever come across any well-identified speci- 

 mens thereof in the far north, Cumberland, or New Cale- 

 donia, B.C. Dr. Richardson named the species from an ex- 

 ample taken in the Athabasca Pass. Mr. Fannin found this 

 duck very abundant on nearly every lake along the Cariboo 

 Road, B.C. He also presented with a fine male, — ^the only 

 specimen therein! — ^the Museum at Ottawa. 



153. BtrFFLE Head — Charitonetta alheola (Liim.). 



While the Cumberland House field-notes record the shoot- 

 ing and the forwarding of two male examples of this 

 species to Washington, I am at present unable to trace the 

 history of the three eggs received there by the Curator of 

 the Oological Branch of the Smithsonian Department of the 

 U. S. National Museum. It is, however, far from scarce 

 in the Compa:ny's Trade Districts of Cumberland, English 



