748 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part 2 



Saskatchewan has been left till last purposely, as there is now strong 

 evidence that the huge areas of suitable habitat in this province 

 probably support a larger population of this species today than any 

 other territory. Three veteran field naturalists, J. Dewey Soper of 

 Alberta, and C. Stuart Houston and Manley Callin of Saskatchewan, 

 have between them furnished me with a list of over 150 areas in this 

 province where they have found Baird's sparrow. 



Manley Callin writes me: "My own observations lead me to believe 

 that Baird's sparrow is not nearly so restricted in distribution in Sas- 

 katchewan as has been indicated. I am inclined to speculate that 

 almost every organized municipality (there are 296 of these) contains 

 some suitable habitat, and that in any specified year, at least half of 

 these and possibly a much higher number are hosts to Baird's sparrows, 

 ranging from a few to a considerable number." 



There remains one other ecological change to discuss: Cartwright 

 et al. (1937) thought this was one of the species that would not conform 

 to changing conditions, that it was one of the irreconcilables, but 

 W. Earl Godfrey (1953) gives wheat fields as the habitat of Baird's 

 sparrow at Swan River, Manitoba, in 1937. Angus H. Shortt of 

 Winnipeg, a member of the field party that gathered these data, writes 

 me: "It was a very dry summer in the Swan River valley, and the 

 wheat fields in question were extremely poor, thin, and with growth 

 not over a foot in height. I was quite surprised to find the sparrows 

 in this type of habitat, but they definitely seemed established. There 

 was an adjoining area of upland grass similar to the territory occupied 

 by this species at Deer Lodge, Manitoba, but for some reason the birds 

 preferred the wheat field." 



A letter from Manley Callin mentions that he noted several males 

 singing from a wheat field near Moosomin, Saskatchewan, July 16, 

 1945. More recently, Margaret Belcher (1961) states that "their 

 breeding habitat in the Regina plains is apparently not restricted to 

 native prairie grasslands. * * * q^ July 31^ 1960, driving through 

 farmlands north of Rowatt [Saskatchewan] we heard Baird's sparrows 

 singing in weedy grainfields on either side of the road. At least six 

 separate songs were heard, presumably from birds in separate terri- 

 tories." In none of these instances were nests located, and Baird's 

 sparrow seldom nests in such terrain unless there is also a great tangle 

 of growth present at ground level. 



In July 1965 1 found a nest in a field that had been plowed and 

 sown to brome grass (Bromus inermus) about 10 years earlier. 

 Because the soil was light and sandy, the annual crop of brome 

 gradually thinned out, and the field had not been harvested for 

 several years. This allowed a ground cover similar to native prairie 



