io8 'British Diving Ducks 
flanks are also lighter in tone. By the month of March it is difficult to distinguish 
young from old females. I do not think that the immature female Buffel-head Duck 
breeds in the first year. 
Breeding Range. — This distinct Nearctic species breeds very generally throughout 
Central and Western Canada and North-western America, and only very rarely occurs on 
migration in Europe. 
Its principal breeding grounds are the mountain lakes of British Columbia and Alaska. 
It breeds on the Lower Mackenzie River, the Great Slave Lake, and throughout Keewatin, 
on the Yukon and probably on Dease Lake near the Liard (where I saw specimens in 
1908), and throughout this region. It is rare in the extreme north about Point Barrow 
and Saint Michael district, and occurs in Unalaska and the Aleutian chain of islands only 
in winter (Turner, Contrib. to the Nat. Hist, of Alaska, p. 134). Throughout British 
Columbia it breeds (Macoun, p. loi, and others). It also breeds in Alberta, Saskatchewan, 
Manitoba, and Ontario.^ It probably also breeds in Quebec, where I observed many at 
the end of the breeding season, and possibly in New Brunswick (Chamberlain), and N.E. 
through Quebec and Hudson Bay. According to Marsh it breeds in N. Ohio. It is 
believed to nest in limited numbers in N. Dakota, Maine, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, 
and certainly in the N. of Montana (Coues, Bull. U. S. Geolog. Survey, iv.. No. 3, p. 653). 
At present there are no records from Labrador, where it probably breeds in the interior. 
Migration Range. 
Europe : British Isles. — There seem to be only two authentic records of this duck in 
our islands. The first is that of a male shot near Yarmouth in the winter of 1830. For- 
merly the specimen was in the collection of Mr. Miller, and then in that of Mr. Rising of 
Horsey. At the dispersal of the last-named collection it was acquired by the Norwich 
Museum. The second example, an adult male, was killed in the winter of 1864-5 ^^e 
Bessingby beck, close to the town of Bridlington, Yorkshire, by Richard Morris, and was 
for some time in the collection of Mr. Machin, whence it passed into the collection of 
Mr. J. Whitaker of Rain worth, where I have seen it. With regard to the two Scotch 
records of this bird, I agree with Mr. Harvie-Brown that they are quite unreliable. 
Asia. — It is recorded from Bering Island (January 19th) by Dr. Stejneger, 1883 {Orn. 
Exploration in Commander Isles, &c., p. 166). This is as we should expect, for a few are 
found in winter in the Aleutian chain (Turner). 
N. America. — Of casual occurrence in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and winters 
in New Brunswick, western New York, Ohio ; common in Indiana (A. W. Butler), 
Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin (C. B. Cory), Oregon (J. C. Merrill). It is also very 
numerous from the coast and open inland waters of British Columbia south to Lower 
California and Texas (Dresser). Only occasional in Mexico (Dresser), Bermuda (Wedder- 
burn), Florida and Cuba (C. B. Cory, Auk, 1888, p. 67). It has occurred in Hawaii, and 
has been once recorded from Greenland, near Godthaab (1830). 
Habits. — This bright little duck is by no means shy, and in its home it is easy 
to study. Its general habits, which I have observed in Ontario, Quebec, and British 
Columbia, are not very gregarious, for they are most often seen in little parties of three to 
^ Saunders and M'llwraith say it is said to breed there. This is no doubt correct, as I saw many there in autumn, and my 
Indians, who lived in these woods^ pointed out to me the woodpecker holes in which they said these ducks always nested. 
