318 THEOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



Professor Maxjoun states that " this species lays a beau- 

 tiful, and for the size of the duck, a large egg, and lays a 

 great number, unless two or more lay in the same nest, which 

 is probably the case." It was common in 1894 at Crane 

 Lake. The nest was usually amongst " cat-tails " (Typha 

 lati folia), whilst the scaup and red-heads preferred to breed 

 among rushes. One nest was taken containing seventeen 

 fresh eggs, fourteen of which belonged to the ruddy duck, 

 two to the canvas-back, and one to the red-head. Bluish- 

 green and creamy-white eggs in the same nest made quite a 

 contrast. In the Ottawa Museum there are but two skins, 

 taken on the Toronto marsh by Mr. S. Herring, and eight 

 eggs, secured at Crane Lake on 15th June, 1894! 



169. Lessee Snow G-qose — Ohen hyperborea (Pallas). 



In the spring of 1889, from a large number of this species 

 which passed north through ISTew Caledonia, many birds were 

 shot, and but one was forwarded, merely as an example skin, 

 to Washington. 



" White waveys " were formerly more abimdant than, I 

 believe, is the case of late years. This apparent diminution 

 is probably a result of the constantly increasing settlement 

 of territory along their annual migration journey from their 

 wintering quarters in the Southern States of the American 

 Union to their breeding-grounds at suitable points along 

 the shores of the Polar Sea; but especially on the extensive 

 islands lying to the north of the American Continent. Rich- 

 ardson says they breed in immense niimbers in the Barren 

 Grounds along the Arctic coast. 



The Eskimos assured us that considerable numbers of 

 " white waveys " annually bred on the shores and islands 

 of Eskimo Lake and Liverpool Bay ; but, strange to say, we 

 never observed any on the Barren Grounds proper or ou 

 the shores of Franklin Bay. The Eskimos brought in to 

 Eort Anderson about one hundred eggs, which they claimed 

 to have discovered among the marshy flats and sandy islets 



