In North-West Canada. 53 



tinguishable, but are generally a trifle larger. The average size 

 of fifty specimens is 80x60, and the number of eggs to a clutch 

 is usually five, sometimes only four. In my collection I have 

 seven clutches of five eggs, and four clutches of four. The 

 ground colour v-aries from white to greyish white, pinky white, 

 clay and greyish olive, usually boldly spotted with umber and 

 blackish brown : many of the eggs are clouded over with dark 

 purple grey which almost conceals the ground colour, and 

 many of the eggs have scratches and hair-line streaks of 

 brown. The male bird has a pleasant song, and sings as it 

 descends to the ground with outstretched motionless wings. 

 It has a black crescent-shaped patch on its breast like that of 

 the meadow lark, and when flying can be easily identified by 

 its white tail feathers. The natives call them ground larks- 

 They were the commonest of small birds found on the elevated 

 prairies. I did not see any chestnut-collared longspurs at Rush 

 Lake, but they were common in the Red River valley towards 

 Winnipeg, where McCown's longspurs are also found in smaller 

 numbers. I was informed that great flocks of snow and Lap- 

 land buntings come around the house at Rush Lake in winter, 

 and are surprisingly tame, but they are never seen in summer ; 

 they go north to the Mackenzie River, Great Slave Lake, and 

 Alaska to breed. I have a number of nests and eggs of the 

 snow bunting that were collected in Iceland, where the birds 

 are common. The nests are strong, compact and neatly built^ 

 and are made of grass, fine roots and hair, and are thickly lined 

 with feathers ; the walls of the nest are an inch thick, and the 

 cavity of the nest is deep. They are built on the ground under 

 tussocks of grass, and sometimes under loose stones and in 

 crevices of rocks. The eggs vary exceedingly both in size and 

 colour. I have a series of fifty 'specimens from Iceland and 

 Greenland. The ground colour is usually white, greenish 

 white or purplish white, and the eggs are speckled, spotted 

 and blotched with various shades of brown and purple 

 grey. The number of eggs laid is from four to six, but 

 usually five. During the past five seasons my Iceland col- 

 lector has sent me some three hundred and fifty eggs 



