314 THROUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



lished in 1891, it was stated that if present on the polar coast, 

 it was surprising that we had never come across a duck of the 

 Harlequin species — Histrionicus histrionicios ; but since that 

 time Mr. Eaine, of Toronto, writes that it does breed at the 

 mouth of the Mackenzie River, where one of his collectors 

 found and sent him eight eggs with the skin of the parent 

 bird. The nest was found on the 19th of June, 1894. It 

 was built on a high bank, near some ice floes, under sticks 

 piled up by overflow water in the spring. The eggs of this 

 species have seldom been obtained in North America. It, 

 however, breeds in Iceland, and lays from six to eight eggs, 

 seldom more. Mr. Turner also mentions that the only nest 

 of HistrioniciLS he ever saw was placed near Ilinlik village, 

 on Unalaska Island. 



It is, however, entered as rare on Mr. Ross's Bird List. 

 There are but three specimens, and some eggs, in the Domin- 

 ion Museum collection ! 



161. Pacific Eider — Somateria V-nigra (Gray). 



A male example of this eider was shot near the outlet 

 of the Mackenzie River, in latitude 69° north, and it was 

 afterwards forwarded to Mr. Dalgleish in 1866. In 1858 

 Mr. Ross shot the first male example ever observed in the far 

 north, at Fort Resolution, Great Slave Lake, while the late 

 Mr. Alexander Mackenzie obtained a female at the same 

 place in 1861. We have never observed any live birds at 

 Eorts Anderson, Chipewyan, or elsewhere in the interior. 

 On the shores of Eranklin Bay, however, they breed in 

 immense numbers. The nest is usually a shallow cavity 

 in the ground, bountifully lined with eiderdown. The eggs 

 are generally five, and but rarely six or seven in number, 

 and they are of a pale sea-green colour, with a tinge of olive. 

 Some nests were found on a sloping bank at a distance of 

 three or four hundred feet from tidewater; but the bulk of 

 the collection of eggs taken under personal observation in 

 that quarter, as well as those received from the Eskimos 



