190S.] 



BIRDS. 



325 



June 1. The species was last noted near Fort Wrigley June T, when a 

 single individual was observed. 



This species apparently was first recorded from the Mackenzie 

 River region by Ross, who mentions a specimen taken at Big Island, 

 Great Slave Lake.« It had been recorded previously from the isTorth 

 Georgia Islands by Edward Sabine, who, probably referring par- 

 ticularly to Melville Island, states that it was found breeding in con- 

 siderable numbers and that several specimens were taken.^ Arm- 

 strong, in his narrative of the voyage of the Investigator^ states that 

 a few were shot in Prince of Wales Strait, near Princess Royal 

 Islands, June T, 1851,^ and that it was frequently shot early in 

 June, 1852, at Mercy Bay, Banks Land.^ On June 29, 1863, Mac- 

 Farlane discovered a nest of this species, " the only one at that time 

 known to naturalists," on the Barren Grounds, about 10 miles west 

 of Franklin Bay. The bird was rare in this region, and no other 

 nests were found.^ Frank Russell took it at Fort Chipewyan June 7, 

 1893.^ 



Limosa haemastica (Linn.). Hudsonian Godwit. 



Richardson described a specimen taken at Fort Franklin, Great 

 Bear Lake, but otherwise the species apparently was unknown from 

 the region until the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company began 

 to collect birds, when specimens were received by the Smithsonian 

 Institution from Fort Rae, Big Island, and Anderson River. 

 Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway state that MacFarlane found it breed- 

 ing near Fort Anderson on June 9, and that other nests were found 

 on the lower Anderson, and describes eggs taken by him in that 

 region.^ Reed records eggs from the [mouth of] Mackenzie River, 

 collected by I. O. Stringer.'' 



Totanus melanoleucus (Gmel.). Greater Yellow-legs. 



The large yellow-legs occurs very sparingly in migration north to 

 the Great Slave Lake region. Its breeding grounds are practically 

 unknown, except inferentially, but the best information at hand in- 

 dicates that numbers nest in the region between Great Slave Lake 

 and Hudson Bay. 



In 1903 we saAv one at a small pond near Sandy Creek, 20 miles 

 south of Athabaska Landing, May 14. Another was seen on the lower 

 Athabaska May 31. 



«Can. Nat. and Geol., YI, p. 443, 1861. 



^ Suppl. to Appendix Parry's First Voyage, p. cxcix, 1824. 



Narrative Discovery Northwest Passage, p. 346, 1857. 

 <^Ibid., p. 525, 1857. 



eProc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XIV, p. 427, 1891. 

 ^Exp]. in Far North, p. 259, 1898. 

 ■9 Water Birds N. A., I, p. 263, 1884. 

 ''N. A. Birds' Eggs, p. 119, 1904. 



