BIEDS OF XOETHERX CAXADA 315 



of Liverpool Bay, were found on sandy islets in the bays 

 of Franklin and Liverpool. Over one thousand eggs of the 

 Pacific eider, I believe first made known to science by our 

 exertions, were shipped to Washington. The male bird is 

 very wild and difficult of approach, especially after being 

 once fired at. Female birds always appeared to us to be 

 largely in excess of males in Franklin Bay. On one occa- 

 sion there we discovered a nest from observing a white owl 

 engaged in eating the eggs — four of which, however, had not 

 been touched. 



There is not a single skin or egg of the S. V-nigra in the 

 ISTational Museum at Ottawa ! ! 



162. Kjis-g Eidee — Somateria spectahilis (Linn.). 



This and the preceding S. T-nigra are the only two of 

 the several species of American eiders entered in the afore- 

 said American Ornithologists' Union Check List personally 

 observed during a residence of nearly fifty-six years in the 

 former licensed and chartered territories of the Hudson's 

 Bay Company, and now known as the Provinces of Mani- 

 toba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, and their respective hinter- 

 land. We have never met with specimens of Somateria 

 mollisima, 8. horealis or S. dresseri, and do not think that 

 they breed on the polar shores of the Anderson or iJIackenzie. 

 As to the king eider, however, we found it tolerably abun- 

 dant in Franklin Bay, where two hundred of its eggs were 

 secured during the bTeeding seasons of 1862 to 1865, in- 

 elusive. The Eskimos of Liverpool Bay also contributed the 

 contents of about twenty nests. These are similar to those 

 of the Pacific eider, and when not interfered with the 

 female bird usually lays from four to five eggs. They are 

 generally of a light shade of olive gray, and some are of a 

 grayish green in colour. The contents of nearly all those 

 of both species were quite fresh, and when mixed with some 

 flour they made excellent pancakes for our party finders. A 

 few birds occasionally breed in close proximity to 8. V-nigra, 



