CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 357 
until the middle of the month. The usual site of the nest is the 
upright crotch formed by three or more diverging twigs of some 
sapling or stout bush, usually ten or twelve feet from the ground. 
One nest that I took I could reach standing on the ground, but 
another was in a slender elm tree some 40 feet high, on a swaying 
bough, but in a crotch of upright twigs as usual. The female 
during incubation is as close a sitter as some of the ground 
sparrows. In one instance I came within an arm’s length before 
the bird flew, and then she merely fluttered out of reach and 
stood uttering a disconsolate note. The nest is usually let deeply 
down into the crotch and bears the impress of the twigs. It is 
composed of intertwined strips of fine fibrous inner bark and de- 
composed weedy substances, matted with agreat quantity of soft 
plant-down, and finished with a lining of a few horse hairs or fine 
grasses, making a firm, warm fabric, with a smooth, even brim 
about 2% inches across outside and less than 2 inches deep ; 
general shape tends somewhat to be conical, but much depends 
upon the site of the nest. The walls are thin, sometimes barely 
coherent along the track of the supporting twigs. The cavity is 
large for the size of the nest, scarcely or not contracted at the 
top; and about as wide as deep. In six instances I found not more 
than four eggs, which seems to be the full complement. These 
are pure white in colour, of ordinary shape (but variable in this 
respect), and measure about two-thirds of an inch in length by 
one-half in breadth. Extremes of length noted were o59 and 
0°68 ; the diameter is less variable. (Cowes.) Nests every year at 
Kew Beach, Toronto; also breeds commonly in Manitoba and 
Assiniboia. (W. Raine.) Breeds in the vicinity of Ottawa. 
Builds a small, neat, compact, deep-cupped nest in upright crotch 
of tree; nest is composed of fine fibrous inner bark, and the 
decomposing outer substance of various weeds, lined with a soft 
plant down, horse hair and fine grass tops. Eggs three or four, 
pure white. (G. R. White.) June 2nd, 1897, found two nests at 
Edmonton, Alta., one in the fork of a small poplar about two feet 
from the ground. Nest very compact, just like a yellow warbler’s 
nest, four eggs nearly fresh. The other was ina larger poplar 
about 25 feet from the ground; nest same as the first; eggs nearly 
fresh; next day found two more nests; one in a willow about 
seven feet feet from the ground. The cther was in a balsam 
poplar about two feet from the ground. Nest very compact, 
composed chiefly of willow down lined with a little dried grass. 
