CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 427 



In the breeding season the yellow-headed blackbird gathers in 

 colonies in some marshy spot. At Pembina it was breeding in the 

 prairie sloughs with the black terns and red-wings. {Coues.) A 

 common summer resident of the deeper sloughs of the prairie region ; 

 more plentiful to the southward in Manitoba. {E. T. Seton.) This 

 bird is very numerous in the Northwest Territories and ranges as 

 far north as lat. 58°, but was not seen east of Lake Winnipeg. (Rich- 

 ardson.) I once observed this bird at Fort Simpson, on the Mac- 

 kenzie river, lat. 62°. (Ross.) Abundant at Chemawawin, near 

 the Grand rapids of the Saskatchewan, breeding in a slough. (Nut- 

 ting.) vScarce between the forks of the Saskatchewan, though fre- 

 quently seen in company with the red-wings; breeding in the region. 

 (Couheaux.) Rather rare at Aweme, Man. (Criddle.) Abundant 

 by marshes in Manitoba and in similar places in 1906 as far west as 

 Edmonton along the G.T.P. Ry. (Atkinson.) This is a common 

 species at Indian Head and Crane lake and in many other parts of 

 eastern Saskatchewan; rather common at Edmonton in northern 

 Alberta, where it bred in small communities in 1897, It was com- 

 mon in 1895 between Moose Jaw and Old Wives lakes. This species 

 requires even a wetter country than the red-wing for nesting in, as 

 its nests are always in reeds or tall grass. It was common in June, 

 1895, at 12-Mile lake, near Wood mountain, building numerous 

 nests in the dry reeds (Typha latijolia) and rushes (Scirpus lacustris). 

 There were no eggs, yet on the same date in 1894, at Crane lake, 

 there were young in many nests and it was difficult to get unhatched 

 eggs. The cause of the absence of eggs was evidently the lateness 

 of the season, as on June 7th we had an all-day snow-storm. A few 

 were seen at Wood Mountain Post; the last specimens were noted 

 about 50 miles west of that point. Later, three specimens were 

 noted at Spur creek, north of Milk river and a few in its valley at 

 Kennedy crossing; only one specimen seen and shot on May 25th, 

 1890, at Revelstoke, B.C.; one seen in the rushes at a lake near 

 Sidley, B.C., May 12th, 1905. (Spreadborough.) A rare summer 

 resident on the mainland east of the Coast range. I have taken it 

 above Clinton on the Cariboo road, B.C. (Fannin.) A young male 

 was shot at Vernon, B.C. Mr. D. McKinley reports them as occa- 

 sionally visiting the cattle corrals at Lac la Hache. (Rhoads.) I have 

 two records of this species for Chilliwack, B.C. ; noticed only one at 

 150-Mile House, Cariboo district, B.C., 1901, as a straggler. (Brooks.) 



