CATALOGUE OB CANADIAN BIRDS. 559 



Breeding Notes. — I was pleased to find this truly elegant bird 

 breeding in abundance at Pembina in the undergrowth of the 

 heavy timber along the banks of the Red river, as I had never 

 before enjoyed a good opportunity of studying its habits. It was 

 not observed at any other point along the line, though stated to 

 p«^n2traie as far northward as the Saskatchewan region; a fine 

 suite of specimens was carefully preserved, and several sets of 

 eggs procured; the birds were mating and in full song by the be- 

 ginning of June, when I arrived upon the spot, but no nests were 

 found until the 21st; four was the largest number found in a nest; 

 others contained only two or three, but in all incubation had begun ; 

 the only nest I took myself was built in a thick grove of saplings, 

 about eight feet from the ground ; it contained three eggs averaging 

 an inch in length by three-fourths in breadth; these were of a pale 

 dull green colour, profusely speckled with reddish-brown; the nests 

 were rather rude and bulky structures, about six inches across 

 outside by four in depth, with the cavity only half as much each 

 way, owing to the thickness of the loose walls; they were built 

 entirely of the slender tortuous stems and rootlets of some climbing 

 shrub, for the most part loosely interlaced, though more firmly, 

 evenly, and circularly laid around the brim, and finished sometimes 

 with a Httle horse-hair lining, sometimes without ; the male at this 

 season has a deHghtful song; the female is, however, nearly voice- 

 less, and of an extremely retiring disposition. (Coues.) 



Nests near Ottawa about ten feet from the ground in trees; the 

 nest is built with small twigs or branches loosely put together and 

 lined with hair-like roots. One nest with four eggs found on June 

 6th, 1895, and another containing three eggs found on May 31st, 

 1902. (Garneau.) This species breeds commonly about Sharbot 

 lake, Frontenac county, Ont., I have seen three nests this month 

 near the road in low ground ; they build a loose nest of twigs, etc., 

 lined with rootlets and fibres, placed eight or ten feet from the 

 ground; the eggs were laid the first week in June, (Rev. C. J. 

 Young.) The nest of this species taken at Ottawa was built in a 

 low bush a few feet from the ground ; it was a bulky and rude affair 

 built of weed-stems and stout rootlets; it was lined with a little 

 horse-hair and some fine rootlets; eggs, three, pale green, speckled 

 with reddish brown. (G. R. White.) 



