84 British Diving Ducks 
nest. They are two inches and two and a half eighths in length by one inch and five-eighths in their 
greatest breadth, more equally rounded at both ends than usual, the shell perfectly smooth, and of a 
uniform pale yellowish or cream colour. I took them on board, along with the female bird, which was 
shot as she rose from her nest. We saw no male bird near the spot, but in the course of the same day 
met with several males by themselves, about four miles distant from the marsh, as we were returning 
to the harbour. This induced me to believe that, like the Eider and other ducks that breed in Labrador, 
the males abandon the females as soon as incubation commences." 
In Hudson Bay and N. Labrador, where Hantzsch found them breeding, they select 
banks, marshes, and small islands near fresh-water lakes at no great distance from the 
sea, and make the nest, as described by Audubon, of rotten vegetation overlaid with dry 
grass, in the months of June and July. Other descriptions of the nesting places and 
eggs are also to be found in the writings of Macfarlane, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xiv. No. 865, 
p. 423, and Macoun, Cat. Canadian Birds, 2nd ed. p. 118. 
Very few authentic nests of this species seem to have been taken, though the birds 
are very plentiful in some districts, which seems to point to the fact that the main breeding 
grounds have not been visited by naturalists. E. W. Nelson also noticed immense 
flocks of males only on the coast in the breeding season and infers that the female 
alone incubates and rears the young [Rep. upon Nat. Hist. Collections made in Alaska, 
1 877- 1 88 1, p. 81). Eggs from the Anderson River and now in the British Museum were 
taken by Macfarlane on June 26 ; another clutch, said to have been taken on the Labrador 
coast on June 11 (Jourdain), whilst a clutch of eight, taken on the Mackenzie River 
(W. Raine, quoted by Macoun), was found on June 26, 1901. 
The nest is said to be sometimes made of moss, twigs, and different plants woven 
together and very like that of the American Velvet-Scoter, whilst nests found by Macfarlane 
seem to have consisted of nothing but down and a few feathers. 
Of the habits of this species during late summer we seem to know nothing at 
present, except that the southward migration often commences very early, flocks of these 
birds coming south to the St. Lawrence and eastern coasts often by the end of August. 
The flesh of this species is said to be far superior to that of the Common or Velvet-Scoter. 
I am not aware that any aviculturist has kept the species in confinement. 
