CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS 5OI 



fledged by July loth. {Grinnell.) Six breeding specimens taken 

 between June ist and July 27tli, and three in winter plumage, illus- 

 trate this species as seen at Point Barrow, Alaska. {Witmer Stone.) 

 A few were seen and four specimens taken at Hope and Tyonek, 

 Cook inlet, Alaska, September, 1900. (Osgood.) I saw several 

 Savanna sparrows in the marshes at Chilkat inlet, June ist, 1899, 

 and took individuals at Haine Mission and at Skagway and others at 

 Glacier, Alaska; several pairs were seen at Log Cabin on Lake 

 Bennett, at Cariboo Crossing and on an island in Lake Tagish, B.C. ; 

 later they were seen on Lake Marsh, lat. 60° 15', in the Yukon district ; 

 then after this none was seen until we reached the Alaska boundary, 

 they were found at Circle City, Charlie Village and at the Aphoon, 

 mouth of the Yukon, and at St. Michael. {Bishop.) From June 

 to September of 1 901, eight specimens in all were seen at Homer 

 and Sheep creek near the Kenai mountains, Alaska. Found breeding 

 on the low sandy spit at Homer. Its nest was well concealed in 

 coarse grass. It was entirely covered and the entrance to the three 

 nests examined was on the southern side. (Figgins.) Nineteen 

 specimens v/ere taken in 1903 at Seldovia and Sheep creek, Alaska. 

 (Anderson.) 



Breeding Notes. — A large suite of specimens was taken, a part 

 of it, however, unintentionally, for it is not an easy matter to always 

 distinguish between the Savanna sparrow and Baird's bunting at 

 gunshot range, and when I have killed a bird I generally make a 

 point of preserving it, even though it is not particularly wanted as a 

 specimen in order that its life may not have been taken in vain. 

 The nest is placed on the ground, simply built of dried grasses with a 

 lining of horse hair; the eggs are four or five in number, in this 

 locality usually laid in the first half of June. Like nearly all the 

 fringilline birds of this region the Savanna sparrow is frequently 

 the cow-bird's foster-parent, and in one instance that came under 

 my observation, the nest contained two of the ahen eggs. (Coues.) 

 On June i8th, 1882, within a few feet of a straw-stack in the barn- 

 yard, where horses and cattle are continually running about, I 

 found the nest of a Savanna sparrow, protected only by a tuft of 

 prairie grass. It contained five eggs, and was composed of grass 

 with a meagre lining of horse-hair, the whole being slightly sunk in 

 the ground. (E. T. Seton.) This is a very abundant species in 

 Saskatchewan and Alberta. Set of eggs usually four. Always 



