In A^ortli-West Canoda. 45 



found its nest and six white eggs The nest was a small heap 

 of rushes about a foot high, and the eggs rested in a cavity at 

 the top lined with feathers. I found the short-eared owl the 

 most plentiful of the family, and they were found breeding 

 at most of the places I visited between Winnipeg and Rush 

 Lake. I was rather late, however, for their eggs, as they com- 

 m 'uce to lay about the middle of May. On May 17th one of 

 my collectors took a clutch of five, and another of seven eggs, 

 south of Oak Lake, Manitoba. Another of my collectors took 

 a clutch of eight eggs on May 24th, 1<S!)1, and another clutch 

 of five eggs on May 28th, 1891, in South Dakota. All these 

 nests were found on the ground, and were composed of rushes 

 and grass ; on the top of the nests were slight depressions, lined 

 with a few^ feathers and fine grass. I have a series of forty 

 eggs of the short-eared owl, and they can be easily distinguish- 

 ed from those of the long-eared species by their smaller size. 

 They average 1.58x1.20. Dr. Coues in his book, " Birds of the 

 North-West," says, " I am unable to appreciate any constant 

 or tangible difierences between the European and the Ameri- 

 can bird." We had now arrived at the lake, but could not 

 reach the water as it had recently dried up consideral )ly owing 

 to the hot weather, and had left a bed of soft mud some fifty 

 feet in width. On this track of mud numerous avosets, god wits, 

 willets, kildeers, gulls and other birds were feeding. Macdouald 

 pointed out to me a sandy island, from which a clutch of five 

 eggs of the Canada goose had been taken three weeks previ- 

 ously, so I waded out some distance and examined the nest ; it 

 was simply a circular hole in the sand lined with feathers and 

 down. I found it a difficult task returning, and was tired out 

 by the time I reached the dry land ; the mud accumulated on 

 my rubber boots up to my knees to such an extent that I had 

 some difficult}" in raising my feet, and it took some time be- 

 fore I could clean the stuff" off. 



Rush Lake is about seven miles long and four miles wide. 

 To the west of it are hundreds of acres of marsh land covered 

 with tall rushes, hence its name Rush Lake. We were picking 

 our way through the rushes, when a duck ffew up just to one 



