CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 527 



ing around Prince Albert, Sask. (Coubeaux.) This species fre- 

 quented the farm-yard at Carlton House on the Saskatchewan, 

 and was as sociable as the English house sparrow. (Richardson.) 

 North of Fort Resolution on Great Slave lake. (Ross.) Two 

 males taken at 150-Mile House, Cariboo district, B.C., July 3rd, 

 1 90 1. (Brooks.) 



Breeding Notes. — Upon my arrival, the ist of June, the bunt- 

 ings were all paired, the males were in full song, nidification was 

 mostly finished, and the eggs were about to be laid. The first 

 specimen procured, June 2nd contained a fully formed egg. A 

 nest taken June 5th was scarcely completed. The first complement 

 of eggs was taken June nth; it numbered four. I think the eggs 

 are mostly laid by the end of the second week in June. The nest 

 is placed in bushes, generally within a few i aches of the ground; 

 it resembles that of the chipbird, though it is not so neatly and 

 artistically finished, and often lacks the horse-hair lining, which is 

 so constant and conspicuous a feature of the latter; in size it aver- 

 ages about three inches across outside by two in depth, with a 

 cavity two inches wide and one and a half inches deep; the struc- 

 ture is of fine grasses and slender weed-stalks, with or without 

 some fine rootlets, sometimes lined with hair, like the chippy's, 

 sometimes with very fine grass tops; it is placed in a crotch of the 

 bush or in a tuft of weeds; the copses of scrubby willows I found 

 to be favorite nesting places, though any of the shrubbery along 

 the river bank seemed to answer; on those occasions when I ap- 

 proached a nest containing eggs, the female fluttered silently and 

 furtively away, without venturing a protest; the eggs I found in 

 one case to be deposited daily till the complement was filled; they 

 measure 0.62 in length by 0.50 in breadth on an average; the 

 ground-colour is light dull green, sparsely but distinctly speckled 

 with some rich and other darker shades of brown, these markings 

 being chiefly confined to the larger end, or wreathed about it, 

 though there are often a few specks here and there over the rest of 

 the surface; from the earliness of the first sets of eggs, I suppose 

 that two broods may be reared each season. (Coues.) The spot 

 chosen for their home is mostly in a low bush, not more than a foot 

 from the ground ; as exception to this rule I have noted five nests on 

 the ground and one or two at a height of three feet; it is a very 

 sUght structure, a good deal like that of a chipping sparrow, but 



