In North- West Canada. 191 



branches of the spruce tree ; they are generally built near the 

 end of the horizontal branches, and some nests before me are 

 attached to a twig of the spruce. The golden-crested kinglet 

 lays from six to ten eggs, eight being the usual number. The 

 eggs are creamy white or bufFy, some having a muddy appear- 

 ance. At the larger end they are finely sprinkled with pale 

 brown or lavender. The golden-crested kinglet breeds in 

 Northern Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and 

 Maine, and also, doubtless, breeds all along the northern tier 

 of the United States, but owing to its small size it is over- 

 looked. It is a regular winter visitor to the city of Toronto^ 

 where it frequents the gardens. 



The ruby-crowned kinglet's eggs are scarce in collections. 

 I have several skins that were obtained in winter in Toronto. 

 This bird also breeds in the northern tier of the United States 

 and in Canada. W. E. D. Scott took a nest and five eggs on 

 June 25th, at Twin Lakes, Colorado. The nest was suspended 

 to the leaves at the end of a branch of a pine tree, twelve feet 

 from the ground. Dr. Merrill found a nest of this species 

 containing eiglit eggs, in Montana, June 18th, at an elevation 

 of 7,700 feet. It was in a fir tree, eighteen feet from the 

 ground, and placed against the trunk, supported by a single 

 branch beneath, and to several twigs to which the sides of the 

 nest were firmly attached. Mr. Chamberlain records a nest 

 which was taken at Lennox ville, Quebec, May 15th, 1882. 

 This was pensile, and was attached to the branch of a small 

 tree. It contained nine eggs, one of them a cowbird's. The 

 nests of the ruby-crowns are usually semi-pensile, neatly and 

 well made, with walls of thick green moss, and lined Avith 

 feathers of small birds, which are woven into the sides and 

 bottom of the structure. The eggs are five to nine in number, 

 and are pale buffy, speckled at the larger end with deeper buftl 



I came across nests and eggs of the robin, cedar waxwing, 

 and white-rumped shrike, and also startled a great horned 

 owl in one of the blufis. This large owl is pretty common in 

 Manitoba, where it nests in hollow trees, and in old crows' 

 nests. It usually lays two or three eggs, and, like those of 



