702 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANAD^. 



Eight eggs are generally laid. (W. H. Moore.) In the woods near 

 Lake Nominingue, about loo miles north of Ottawa, two nests were 

 found imbedded in green moss on the ground, and another on the 

 side of a fallen tree. The entrances were about an inch in diameter 

 and the interiors were empty spheres lined with a few grasses. 

 (Garneau.) I have found this species breeding at Long Branch, 

 west of Toronto, at Rice lake and near Port Hope and at Waterloo, 

 Ont.; a favorite nesting place is in the root of some fallen tree; it 

 lays six to seven eggs, finely spotted at the largest end with dark 

 brown. (W. Raine.) There were a few years ago some large woods 

 in the front of the township of Lansdowne, Ont. ; a creek ran through 

 them, and here the winter wren was quite common and bred; I once 

 found its nest, which was built in a cavity of a stump, about a foot 

 from the ground ; it was early in May before the bird laid her eggs, 

 but at that time the nest was really completed, being a large globular 

 ball of moss with a small hole near the top. {Rev. C. J. Young.) 



This season, I saw one on January 23rd (1894) in a wood- 

 land dell, which it frequents during the summer, and near 

 where I had found two nests. On March 30th, I again heard it in 

 the same place, and from that date they became more common. 

 Toward the centre of our sugar bush, and not far from the "camp 

 fire," the ground is rather low, and here most of the larger timber 

 was uprooted by that terrible windstorm of April 20th, 1 893 ; having 

 noticed the winter wrens frequently during April, in this bush, I 

 expected that they were going to nest here again, and a search on 

 May 2nd, was rewarded with the discovery of a nearly completed 

 nest in one of the highest roots. I think it was four days later that 

 I again visited it, when it contained four eggs ; on the 9th, I flushed 

 the bird from her nest, which I carefully removed from its place in 

 the soil and fine roots, and found the number of eggs to be six, which 

 were apparently pure white, but if held up to a strong light, after 

 being blown, the minute markings, with which the larger part of the 

 surface is dotted, became visible; the site of the nest was about six 

 feet above the ground, or rather water, which filled the space out of 

 which the root had been torn; the nest resembled a round ball of 

 moss with an entrance hole on the outer side; it measured over 

 twelve inches in circumference ; the exterior was almost wholly com- 

 posed of a species of moss, common on the lower parts of trees and 

 logs in low grounds ; around the entrance are a number of the stalks 

 of hemlock leaves, while the inside is nearly lined with fine vegetable 



