344 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



the western peninsula of Ontario. Abundant in many parts, but 

 not so much so near I^ondon as formerly, the decrease beginning 

 about 1878. It spends the winter here in considerable numbers if 

 food conditions are favourable. (W. E. Saunders.) 



A rare summer resident in Manitoba, but commoner eastward. 

 {E. T. Seion.) Very rare at Aweme, Man., but breeds. (Criddle.) 

 A species which is rapidly increasing in numbers in the heavier 

 wooded districts of Manitoba having become quite a regular breed- 

 ing species about Portage la Prairie along the Assiniboine river 

 east. (Atkinson.) One seen by Mr. C. S. Day in timber at Skull 

 creek, Sask., June 9th, 1905. (A. C. Bent.) In May, 1895, this 

 species was seen at Old Wives creek, in eastern Saskatchewan; 

 also at Wood Mountain Post, and observed breeding at ' ' Stone 

 Pile" on the White Mud river, Sask., in June, 1895; a pair was 

 found breeding on the east end of the Cypress hills in June, 1894; 

 the same year one was seen at Crane lake and another at Medicine 

 Hat, Sask. ; a pair seen at Pass creek, near Robson, Columbia river, 

 B.C., June 25th, 1890. (Macoun.) 



Breeding Notes. — A common summer resident in Ontario. 

 Very plentiful along the St. Lawrence, on Wolfe island and else- 

 where, becoming rarer northward in the county of Renfrew. It 

 occasionally stays all winter. In the mild winter of 1890 I saw 

 two several times in a sugar bush of large maples in the township 

 of Escott, Leeds county, Ont. ; also at the same sugar bush I 

 noticed one in December, 1899. It is a late breeder, seldom having 

 eggs before June, and making its nest-hole high up in the dead Hmb 

 of a large tree. I have only once or twice seen the nest within ten 

 feet of the ground. (Rev. C. J. Young.) Nest taken in woods near 

 Ottawa. It was a hole in a tree and contained four pure white eggs 

 laid on a bed of chips and dust. (G. R. White.) At Rice lake, 

 Ont.; June loth, 1902, I found this bird more plentiful than the 

 common flicker, nesting in decayed tree stubs. (W. Raine.) Mr. 

 G. A. Dunlop found a nest with eggs of this species at Lacuine, and 

 I came across it breeding in a hole of a dead tree along a fence, 

 between two woods at Longue Pointe, May 24th, 1889. I shot the 

 female bird at the time for a specimen. I have not met with this 

 conspicuously coloured woodpecker in the autumn season, and 

 therefore I infer it departs south as soon as its young are reared 

 and able to migrate. (Wintle.) Is perhaps the latest of our wood- 



