CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 457 
summer resident in Manitoba, local in distribution, many pairs 
affecting a limited area of dry prairie, while for miles no more of 
this species are to be seen. (Zhompson-Seton.) First seen at 
Indian Head, Assa., May 12th, 1892, by the 18th they were com- 
mon; they breed there in great numbers; very common at Crane 
Lake; seen in large flocks flying in company with McCown’s bunt- 
ing at Medicine Hat, May 2nd, 1894; breeding in large numbers 
at Crane Lake in June; found three nests with young and one 
with four fresh eggs June 12th, 1894, the nest was a rather deep 
hole in the ground, lined with a little dried grass; nest on the 
open prairie in short grass; rare at the Cypress Hills, only one 
specimen seen in a week. (Spreadborough.) Quite common 
at Brandon, Man., and Moose Jaw, Assa., in 1896. This is a 
common bird everywhere on the prairie from Indian Head, Assa., 
westward to Frenchman’s River; this species, the horned lark 
and McCown’s bunting make up nearly the whole avi-fauna of the 
absolute prairie. It is exclusively a prairie bird and is more or 
less common in all the country traversed in 1895 to Milk River. 
No nests were taken before June 18th, though in the preceding 
year young were hatched before that date. (Macoun.)) I have 
found this bird breeding abundantly throughout the prairie parts 
of Manitoba and Assiniboia. It was especially numerous on the 
prairie north of Moose Jaw, Assa., where during the first week of 
June, 1891, I found many nests on the ground at the side of sods 
and containing five or six eggs each. (W. Raine.) 
BREEDING Norrs.-—My first specimens were secured July 14th, 
1873, at which dates the early broods were already on wing. 
Uniting of several families had scarcely begun, however, nor were 
small flocks made up, apparently, till the first broods had, as a 
general thing, been left to themselves, the parents busying them- 
selves with a second set of eggs. Then straggling troops, con- 
sisting chiefly of birds of ‘the year, were almost continually seen, 
mixing freely with Baird’s buntings and the skylarks; in fact, 
most of the congregations of prairie birds that were successively 
disturbed by our advancing wagon-trains consisted of all three of 
these, with a considerable sprinkling of Savanna sparrows, shore 
larks and bay-winged buntings. The first eggs I secured were 
July 18th, nearly a week after I had found young on wing; these 
were fresh; other nests examined at the same time contained 
newly hatched young. Again, I have found fresh eggs so late as 
