510 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



of Specimens, including adults of both sexes and young just from 

 the nest, were collected, July 23rd to 30th, 1900, at Fort Churchill^ 

 Hudson bay, where the birds were common. They frequent the 

 scattered patches of dwarfed spruce that grow in the small valleys 

 and ravines intersecting the extensive expanse of precipitous ledges 

 along the Churchill river in the vicinity of the post. They undoubt- 

 edly nest among these spruces but no nests attributable to this 

 species were found. Several were seen on our return to the upper 

 Hayes river, near the Robinson portage and at the Echimamish, 

 Keewatin. (Preble.) A fine series of specimens of this handsome 

 and interesting bird was secured at our Mouse river depot, dur- 

 ing the latter half of September and beginning of October. Its 

 breeding grounds are as yet unknown. (Coues.) Abundant spring 

 and fall migrant, frequenting thickets in Manitoba. (E. T. Seton.) 

 Abundant as a migrant in Manitoba. {Atkinson.) Specimen shot 

 at Fort Pelly, August 29th, 1881 ; in flocks 50 miles west of Brandon 

 on the road to Fort Ellice, Man. {Macoun.) Only three were seen 

 at Indian Head, Sask., during three months residence in the spring 

 of 1892; these were seen May 12th and 13th. (Spreadborough.) 

 Noticed^in company with other sparrows at Prince Albert, Sask., 

 Sept. 2, 1900. (Coubeaux.) I took two individuals at Sumas, B.C., 

 loth January, 1895, and saw a third at Chilliwack, B.C. (Brooks.) 

 Taken at Cadboro bay near Victoria by A. H. Maynard, October, 

 1894; and another individual shot at Comox, November, 1894, by 

 W. B. Anderson. (Fannin.) 



Breeding Notes. — I have pleasure in recording the first auth- 

 entic nest and eggs of this species. On June nth, 1901, at Cres- 

 cent lake, Sask., I was fortunate in finding the nest in the root of 

 a small willow at the edge of a blufif. The nest was made of grass 

 and fine bark, lined with dry grass. The eggs are unlike those of 

 any other sparrow. They are large for sparrows, averaging .88 x 

 . 68 inches, and are creamy white, spotted chiefly at the larger end 

 with rusty brown and lilac and have a high polish. The parent 

 bird was secured. This is the third species of sparrow found by 

 me breeding in northwest Canada whose nests and eggs were pre- 

 viously unknown to science. (W. Raine.) First seen on Kahino- 

 nay island, Great Slave lake as we went north, July 20, 1907. It was 

 there nesting. After that they were abundant nesting in a very 

 large thicket right to the edge of the "barrens." In the Last woods, 



