For more than a week after we had anchored in the lovely harbour of Little Macatina, I had been anxiously searching for the nest of this species, but in vain: the millions that sped along the shores had no regard to my wishes. At length I found that a few pairs had remained in the neighbourhood, and one morning, while in the company of Captain EMERY, searching for the nests of the Red-breasted Merganser, over a vast oozy and treacherous fresh-water marsh, I suddenly started a female Surf Duck from her treasure. We were then about five miles distant from our harbour, from which our party had come in two boats, and fully five and a half miles from the waters of the Gulf of St Lawrence. The marsh was about three miles in length, and so unsafe that more than once we both feared, as we were crossing it, that we might never reach its margin. The nest was snugly placed amid the tall leaves of a bunch of grass, and raised fully four inches above its roots. It was entirely composed of withered and rotten weeds, the former being circularly arranged over the latter, producing a well-rounded cavity, six inches in diameter, by two and a half in depth. The borders of this inner cup were lined with the down of the bird, in the same manner as the Eider Duck’s nest, and in it lay five eggs, the smallest number I have ever found in any duck’s nest. They were 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. I regret that, notwithstanding all my further exertions, I did not succeed in discovering more nests or young birds.