586 General Notes. [oct. 



Mr. Lawrence visited Pine Lake on the borders of Manitoba and On- 

 tario (actually in Ontario) on July 3. He found the Evening Grosbeak 

 in some numbers but found no nest. 



Since returning to Winnipeg, Mr. Lawrence tells me that one of the 

 orchardists at the Agricultural College told him that he had actually 

 found the nest of an Evening Grosbeak near the college grounds. Mr. 

 Lawrence promptly went out to see it, but the man was unable to locate 

 it again and supposed that it had been destroyed. 



'My own time, from the middle of June to the beginning of August, 

 was spent at the Manitoba University Biological Station at Indian Bay, 

 Shoal Lake, Lake of the Woods. Indian Bay is in Manitoba, a few miles 

 from the Ontario boundary. I saw no signs of Evening Grosbeaks till 

 July 23, when I heard the note on one of the islands in the bay. To 

 my surprise I found an old bird accompanied by a single young one clam- 

 ouring for food. To my great regret I failed to secure either of them, 

 as they were almost at once lost to view in the growth and were not seen 

 again till leaving the island and out of range. On the 26th, however, 

 on the mainland and not far from the Biological Station, I again heard 

 the note and this time found a family of three or four being fed by the 

 parents. I shot two of the young, but one was lost in the dense growth. 

 Later in the day I came across yet another family of young and collected 

 one of these. There can be no doubt that these birds were bred in the 

 immediate vicinity as the youngest of the two I secured could not have 

 been long out of the nest. They may have been reared on one of the is- 

 lands, though the forest is so dense that they more probably had their 

 homes on the mainland and escaped observation earlier. — Wm. Rowan, 

 Department of Biology, Alberta University, Edmonton, Alta., Canada. 



A Change in the Nesting Habits of the Common House Sparrow 

 (Passer domesticus) . — After its introduction into the National Capital, 

 the House Sparrow bred the following spring and summer in many places. 

 Hundreds of them made their nests in the vines on churches and elsewhere; 

 while it was no uncommon thing to observe from three to half a dozen 

 of their big, bulky nests in one of the street maples or other trees. They 

 were all the more conspicuous for the reason that the birds bred so early 

 that their nests were in evidence long before the selected trees had fully 

 leafed out. 



Then, in a year or so, followed the "sparrow-war" — a persecution to 

 the death of these birds, carried on in the most merciless manner. Their 

 nests were pulled out of trees and other places more rapidly than they 

 could build them; great nets were thrown over vines on churches, houses, 

 and other buildings after roosting time, and thousands of others fell vic- 

 tims to the law ordering their extermination. Various other devices were 

 resorted to in order to destroy this poor, little, introduced feathered 

 "pest"; but the House Sparrow had come to stay, and, owing to his long, 

 long training in the cities of many countries and among all nations of men, 



