. The wild fowl of the United States and British possessions : or, The swan, geese, ducks, and mergansers of North America ... . cal-ities usually neglected by them, and so seem to be morenumerous, I cannot say. The species has a widedistribution, ranging over the whole of North America,and going south in winter as far as Guatemala andthe West Indies. It breeds north of the UnitedStates, mainly in the Arctic regions and also, possi-bly, in Minnesota, and perhaps in some other ofthe border States; but whether it goes west of themountains in the Territory of Alaska is difficult to deter-mine, as
. The wild fowl of the United States and British possessions : or, The swan, geese, ducks, and mergansers of North America ... . cal-ities usually neglected by them, and so seem to be morenumerous, I cannot say. The species has a widedistribution, ranging over the whole of North America,and going south in winter as far as Guatemala andthe West Indies. It breeds north of the UnitedStates, mainly in the Arctic regions and also, possi-bly, in Minnesota, and perhaps in some other ofthe border States; but whether it goes west of themountains in the Territory of Alaska is difficult to deter-mine, as by many writers this bird and the previousspecies have been so generally regarded as the same,that it is impossible to decide by their narratives whichone is intended. Dall and Kennicott say it breeds plen-tifully on the Yukon River, while Nelson, an equallycompetent observer, states that during a long residence,at the Yukon mouth and to the northward, he did notsee a single individual of the Little Scaup, although theBig Scaup was abundant, and Turner does not mentionit among the birds seen by him in Alaska. From this164. LESSER SCAUP DUCK. 165 it would be fair to infer that this species breeds on theeastern portion of the Arctic region, and if present at all,is an exceptional visitor within the limits of Alaska. The nest, found on the lower Anderson River by Mac-Farlane, was placed in a swampy tract near a woodedcountry, and was simply a depression in the center of atuft of grass, and lined with down, probably from thefemales breast. Another was placed in a clump of wil-lows in the midst of a swamp, and close to a small location of these nests were somewhat different fromthose chosen by the Big Scaup Duck, which, as alreadystated, were almost in the water, or so near that thefemale could swim to and from it. The eggs, usuallynine in number, are a pale grayish buff sometimes tingedwith olive. The male keeps in the vicinity of the nest,but it is not known that he shar
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectgameandgamebirds
