644 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



A rare summer resident in Manitoba. Only mentioned by a few 

 observers. (E. T. Seton.) Very abundant as a migrant in Mani- 

 toba, breeds sparingly throughout the province of Manitoba; not 

 noted west of Fort Ellice in 1906. {Aikinson.) A rare summer 

 resident at Aweme, Manitoba; arrived May i8th, 1903, and last seen 

 August 2 1 St. (Criddle.) A rare summer migrant at Indian Head, 

 Sask. Only one individual seen in the spring of 1892, on June 8th. 

 Only one individual was seen at Medicine Hat, Sask., in the spring 

 of 1894. (Spreadborough.) One was taken at Oxford House, Kee- 

 watin, July 3rd, 1901. {E. A. Preble.) 



Breeding Notes. — Here the first nest that claimed my attention 

 was one placed on the side of a small birch tree, where a tuft of 

 twigs grew out from the ground. I soon reached and secured this; 

 it contained three fresh eggs; these were of a white hue with dot- 

 tings and patches of a brownish or flesh colour, the nest itself being 

 composed of fragments of bark, rootlets and hair; I did not then note 

 the owner, nor could I at that time have identified the species, but 

 I gave them a name and placed them in my collection. Two years 

 after — June, 1879 — I was out in a piece of swampy woods, south of 

 the town, when my attention was arrested by the actions of a small 

 bird, which was constructing a nest among some leafy twigs growing 

 on the small horizontal branch of a little water-elm, about three feet 

 out from the trunk and ten feet off the ground. Some days after I 

 viewed this nest again, it then contained one egg, and three days 

 later when I revisited it, I found the bird at home sitting on three 

 eggs, which I inferred were the full set, and that incubation had 

 begun. When this bird flew off her nest and took a position on a 

 branch nearby, uttering a few chip-like notes, I identified her as a 

 female bay-breasted warbler. The nest and eggs were exactly like 

 those above described, and of course both belonged to the same 

 species. Some days after this I found another nest of this bird in 

 a neighbouring lowland wood ; this was placed in the top of a small 

 hemlock, about fourteen feet from the ground, constructed of similar 

 materials, and contained four eggs. Since then no nest of this 

 species with eggs has come under my observation, but I have noted 

 a few others in which young had apparently been raised. One of 

 these was on the side of a small cedar, where a little branch grew out, 

 and about four feet off the ground; another, evidently a new nest, 

 but after the breeding season when I found it, was placed among 



