igo6] Correspondence. 113 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



The Editor Ottawa Naturalist : 



Dear Sir, In the last issue of The Auk Rev. G. VV. G. 

 Eifrig notes a peculiar fact about the field sparrow. "That it is 

 found in the fall migration in Ottawa but that apparently nothing- 

 is recorded of its summer home to the north nor of its spring 

 migration." As bearing on this subject I might say that I found 

 single specimens of this bird in song on August 31, 1905 and 

 July 27, 1899, at Kazuabazua, on the blueberry barrens, and on 

 August 7, 1899, 1 recorded two in song near Ottawa, but have 

 no memo, of the exact locality. The fact of the bird being there 

 in full song at midsummer is practically as good a proof of its 

 summer residence as if the nest and eggs were actually found. 

 There is a good deal of the country north of Ottawa where the 

 original forest has been destroyed which has now been given up 

 to blueberry and to sweet fern, and I should think it likely that 

 the field sparrows would occur all through this country where 

 these conditions obtain. Ottawa is by no means the only 

 place which shows erratic distribution of this species. In London 

 it is very common and equally so at Toronto but in Guelph there 

 is not a single record, and I am not sure but that this condition 

 applies to the whole ot Wellington county in which Guelph is 

 situated, yet the bird is found much further north in western 

 Ontario. It does not seem that there is any lack of suitable 

 ground in the Guelph region. A raspberry thicket on the edge 

 of a field or hazel or thorn bushes in an half open woods are its 

 usual habitat and these combinations occur all over the country. 



W. E. Saunders. 

 London, Ont., July 18th, 1906. 



