In North -West Canada. 171 



In crossing from one bluff to another, I startled a chestnut- 

 collared longspur off its nest and five eggs. These eggs are 

 greyish white, clouded over with purple grey and spotted 

 with purplish black. The nest was similar to that of McCown's 

 longspur, made of dried grass and built under the shelter of a 

 tuft of grass. I also found a nest of the western vesper 

 sparrow, or bay -winged bunting : it was similar to that of the 

 longspur. The eggs are pinkish white, spotted with umber 

 brown, and are larger than eggs of the chestnut-collared long- 

 spur. This little bird sings a pleasant song every evening as 

 the sun goes down, and is a great favourite of the settlors. It 

 has a great habit of flitting along the trails in front of an 

 advancing wagon or person, alighting everj^ few yards. I 

 observed several sparrow-hawks in the bluffs. They nest in 

 old woodpeckers' holes. Golden-winged woodpeckers were 

 also common. 



I flushed a small bird from the root of a bush and found its 

 nest and four eggs. They were unknown to me, but turned 

 out to be eggs of Leconte's sparrow. They are pinky 

 white, finely speckled with pale brown, and at the largest end 

 they have spots of dark umber brown. These eggs are about 

 the same size as those of tlie chestnut-collared longspur, aver- 

 aging 74x52. The nest was made of dried grass and built 

 amongst the grass growing at the root of a bush in a swampy 

 portion of the blufl'. The eggs of this species are very rare. 

 I flushed several sharp-tailed grouse, and at last found a 

 nest and fourteen eggs on the point of hatching. It was built 

 under a bush, and consisted of a hollow in the ground lined 

 with grass and feathers. The prairie in this section is very 

 flat, and the bluflfs of pine and aspen stand out like islands 

 surrounded with expanses of damp prairie. 



The bluffs swarm with bird life, and this is about the finest 

 country one could imagine. Here the ornithologist can wan- 

 der along all day and never feel lonely. There is always 

 plenty to interest him. In the bluffs are found all kinds of 

 woodland birds, such as black-billed cuckoos, shrikes, king- 

 birds, robins, grackles, vireos, jaj^s, warblers, woodpeckers. 



