46 The Ottawa Naturalist. [June- July 



the latter perhaps the most erratic of all birds, and for the last two 

 years we have been amazed and puzzled by the dwindling of the blue 

 gray gnat-catcher. I have seen it so common in this district that I was 

 able to find on one morning three nests in a single wood. Last year my 

 impression is that the combined efforts of our Club resulted in the 

 report of one bird and this year not a single one has been noted. Thes* 1 

 birds usually nest in half open woods of oak, cherry, elm, etc., and we 

 have usually found in the same woods the cerulean warbler and often 

 the goldenwing but while the numbers of the two last mentioned have 

 not fallen away seriously, the blue gray has vanished as far as our 

 district is concerned. 



It is a well known fact that practically all of the annual increases 

 of each species dies within a year but when the blue bird was almost 

 exterminated in the winter of 1895 it proved to be possible for that 

 species to hold a considerable portion of the annual gain of numbers so 

 that in a few years it nearly reached the former standard of abundance 

 and it is to be hoped that there are enough gnat-catchers left in Ontario 

 to spread gradually over their former habitat. 



W. E. Saunders, London, Ont. 



THE ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW NEAR OTTAWA. 



On June 28th,' two tunnels used by Rough-winged Swallows as 

 nesting sites were observed about one-half a mile apart in the sandy 

 bank of the Rideau River above Hog's Back Lock. They were larger 

 in diameter than those excavated by Bank Swallows, being about the 

 same size as Kingfisher tunnels. 



One of them, situated about two feet from the top of a thirty foot 

 bank, was found to run in three feet and end in a chamber approxi- 

 mately eight inches in diameter. The nest, which contained six young, 

 was made entirely of a liberal amount of dry grass. Instead of being 

 symmetrically placed at the end of the tunnel, the nesting chamber was, 

 without apparent reason, wholly on one side. 



The Rough- winged Swallow has uniformly colored throat and 

 breast while the Bank Swallow, which it resembles in appearance and 

 habits, has white underparts with a brownish band across the breast. 

 The flight of the Rough-wing is slower and less irregular than that of 

 the Bank Swallow. 



The Rough-winged Swallow should be watched for, as it has 

 seldom been observed in eastern Canada. 



Clyde L. Patch, Ottawa. 



