388 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



month secured a large series of specimens, including many nests 

 and eggs, the latter not until the middle of the month. The usual 

 site of the nest is the upright crotch formed by three or more diverg- 

 ing twigs of some sapling or stout bush, usually ten or twelve feet 

 from the ground. One nest that I took I could reach standing on 

 the ground, but another was in a slender elm tree some 40 feet high, 

 on a swaying bough, but in a crotch of upright twigs, as usual. The 

 female during incubation is as close a sitter as some of the ground 

 sparrows. In one instance, I came within an arm's length before 

 the bird flew, and then she merely fluttered out of reach and stood 

 uttering a disconsolate note. The nest is usually let deeply down 

 into the crotch and bears the impress of the twigs. It is composed 

 of intertwined strips of fine fibrous inner bark and decomposed 

 weedy substances, matted with a great quantity of soft plant-down, 

 and finished with a lining of a few horse hairs or fine grasses, making 

 a firm, warm fabric, with a smooth, even brim about 2h inches 

 across outside and less than 2 inches deep ; general shape tends some- 

 what to be conical, but much depends upon the site of the nest. The 

 walls are thin, sometimes barely coherent along the track of the 

 supporting twigs. The cavity is large for the size of the nest, scarcely 

 or not contracted at the top; and about as wide as deep. In six 

 instances, I found not more than four eggs, which seems to be the 

 full complement. These are pure white in colour, of ordinary shape 

 (but variable in this respect), and measure about two-thirds of an 

 inch in length by one-half in breadth. Extremes of length noted, 

 were 0.59 and 0.68; the diameter is less variable. (Coues.) Nests 

 everv year at Kew Beach, Toronto; also breeds commonly in Mani- 

 toba and Saskatchewan. (W. Raine.) Breeds in the vicinity of 

 Ottawa. Builds a small, neat, compact, deep-cupped nest in up- 

 right crotch of tree ; nest is composed of fine fibrous inner bark, and 

 the decomposing outer substance of various weeds, lined with a 

 soft plant down, horse hair and fine grass tops. Eggs, three or four ; 

 pure white. {G. R. White.) One nest was found in the month of 

 June in the upright fork of a small elm tree, four feet from the ground. 

 It measured 2.50 inches in diameter and 2.50 in height; the cavity 

 had a diameter of two inches and a depth of 1.75 inches. (A. L. 

 Garneau.) June 2nd, 1897, found two nests at Edmonton, Alta., 

 one in the fork of a small poplar about two feet from the ground. 

 Nest very compact, just like a yellow warbler's nest, four eggs nearly 



