752 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



an empty nest 



bred near Fort Yukon. Although robins were by no means com- 

 mon at Cariboo Crossing, I found, on June 25th, 13 empty nests, 

 most of them evidently built that year and four empty nests of the 

 Alma thrush, in a small patch of spruces. The red squirrels which 

 lived in a hollow tree near by probably knew of the location of 

 most of these nests. Osgood took a well grown young robin here 

 on June 26th. (Bishop.) One juvenal taken at Sheep creek, 

 Alaska, Aug. 30, 1903. (Anderson.) 



Breeding Notes. — This species nests at Scotch Lake, N.B., 

 from April to August. Four broods have been hatched in one 

 nest in one season. The nest always has earth in its composition 

 and is lined with leaves of grass; eggs three to five; I have known 

 the birds to move the eggs from one nest to another when the first 

 place had become too public. The period of incubation is ten or 

 eleven days and the young stay in the nest fourteen days. (W. H. 

 Moore.) Nests are placed on stumps and fences, in sheds and 

 around buildings and in trees almost from the ground to 50 feet up 

 in large trees. The nest is made of grass with a bed of mud and a 

 lining of grass. Eggs taken at Ottawa in April, May, June and 

 July. (Garneau.) Nest very bulky, composed of vegetable matter, 

 leaves, moss, stems and weeds, grass, hair and wool ; inside is a 

 neat cup of mud lined with fine vegetable matter; eggs five, of a rich 

 greenish blue colour. No markings or spots. (G. R. White.) 



761. Western Robin. 



Planestictus mignUorius propinquus (RiDGW.) Ridgw. 1907. 



Common in the Maple creek, Sask., timber in 1906. (A. C. 

 Bent.) A common summer resident throughout the whole district 

 of Medicine Hat, Crane lake. Swift Current creek and Cypress hills, 

 Sask. This form was first seen at Banff, Rocky mountains where 

 it was in some numbers; at Revelstoke, B.C., it arrived on April 

 loth, 1890, and soon became common; it bred in large numbers at 

 Revelstoke, Deer Park, and Robson on the Columbia river, but 

 curiously it was very wild and difficult to shoot; common on the 

 International Boundary between Trail and Cascade in 1902; found 

 a nest on a fence overhung with brush near Trail ; abundant every- 

 where in the Okanagan valley, B.C., in April, 1903; very abundant 



