10 The Ottawa Naturalist. [November 



o'clock in the morning I noticed a bird with an enormous tail 

 (about twelve inches long) sitting- on a bare limb of a poplar tree 

 about ICO yards from me. On closer inspection I found it to be 

 opening- and closing its tail, and thinking at once of the Scissor- 

 tailed Fly-catcher that I had read about, I took down notes of its 

 plumage (it was quite tame) and looked it up, and am certain it 

 was a Scissor-tailed Fly-catcher. There was a report that it had 

 been seen about eighteen miles west of the same place two years 

 before, but that may be a mistake. 



'• The Whip-poor- Will left us about the 6th of September. 



" There are a lot of Red-breasted Nuthatches in the fir trees in 

 front of the college just now. They are rather rare. 



" On the 1 8th of June I saw four nests of the Evening Gros- 

 beak about one mile north of Winnipeg, near the Red River, in 

 fact right on its bank. The nests were about twelve or fifteen feet 

 from the ground in some grey willows ; they were rather flat and 

 slight, made of sticks and roots and lined with smaller roots. 

 There were only two eggs in two nests and one each in the other 

 two. The eggs are more blotched than those of the Red-breasted 

 and not so spotted, and I fancy they are a little smaller. Unfor- 

 tunately some rascally boys got at them and left only the trees 

 standmg. 



" I have seen the Evening Grosbeak in flocks often to eighty 

 on the Peace River. The Indians say they always build in Saska- 

 toon w'lWows ( Ame lane hier), though I think there are exceptions." 

 Ottawa, Oct. 23rd, 1899. 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 



The herbarium of the Geological Survey has recently been 

 enriched by several very interesting collections of plants from 

 remote or little known regions. Chief among these is Prof. 

 Macoun's very complete series of the plants of Sable Island. 

 These number 190 species of flowering plants and about 50 species 

 of cryptogams. Considering the number of shipwrecks in the 

 vicinity of the island it is surprising that the number of introduced 

 plants growing on Sable Island should be so very small. The few 



