540 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 
their nests under the eaves and gables of barns and houses. 
( Thompson- Seton.) 
First observed at Indian Head, Assa., on May 24th, 1892; they 
soon became common and bred in large numbers in suitable 
places ; this species reached Medicine Hat, Assa., May 22nd, 
1894, and immediately began to build new and repair old nests; 
later they were found breeding under the eaves of all the water 
tanks along the Canadian Pacific Railway between Medicine 
Hat and Moose Jaw; at Crane Lake they were particularly abun- 
dant, building their nests in hundreds under the eaves of the farm 
buildings; no matter how often the nests were knocked down 
they were replaced by others; this species was seenin 1895 from 
Old Wives’ Lakes throughout the whole prairie region across 
Assinaboia by Wood Mountain, Frenchman’s River and the 
Cypress Hills; in Alberta it was abundant along Milk River, 
where it bred in large communities, as well as along Spur Creek, 
Sage Creek and Many Berries Creek; a common species in the 
Bow valley nearly up to Banff in the Rocky Mountains; very 
abundant along the Peace River, Atha., in 1903; first seen at 
Edmonton, Alta., May 13th, 1897; common by the 2ist, and 
building their nests by hundreds in the town ; saw a few nesting 
in the cut banks of the rivers between Edmonton and the Atha- 
basca River in June, 1898. (Spreadborough.) A large number of 
old nests were noticed between Athabasca Landing and Lesser 
Slave River, Atha., but no birds were seen; we were very likely 
too early in the season. (/. MZ. Macoun.) First observed on 
May 30th, 1coo, then in great numbers, building their nests in 
the town of Prince Albert, Sask. (Coubeaux.) 
In the year 1820 this species was discovered by Major Long 
near the Rocky Mountains, and in the same year Sir John 
Franklin’s party, on the journey from Cumberland House to Fort 
Enterprise, and on the banks of Point Lake in Lat. 65°, where 
its earliest arrival was noted, in the following year, to be June 
12th. its «clustered nests are ‘of frequent occurrence om the 
“barren grounds,” and they are not uncommon throughout the 
the whole course of the Great Slave and Mackenzie rivers. 
(Richardson.) North to Rat River on the Mackenzie ; common. 
(Ross.) In 1856 about one hundred and fifty nests of this species 
were built, for the first time, at Fort Good Hope, on the Mac- 
kenzie River, and in 1866 one was seen examining the eaves of 
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