^**''l9i^"^] MousLEY, Birds of H alley, Quebec. 171 



found feeding almost any day. From the actions of a few scattered pairs 

 I felt sure they were breeding, but it was not until May 12 that I had the 

 satisfaction of twice seeing an adult bird feeding a fully grown young, and 

 on September 18 on the outskirts of a large wood (at a spot where I well 

 remember having seen a pair of birds on two or three occasions early in 

 April), I found what I feel sure was a nest of this species. It was situated 

 25 feet up in a tall fir tree well concealed and saddled on to a branch at its 

 junction with the main trunk, and is different from any other nest I have 

 ever found here before. The foundation consisted of a platform of small 

 fir twigs and a few gi-ass stems 5| inches in width, upon which rested the 

 nest proper. This was composed of very fine strips of bark and grasses, 

 warmly lined with animal fur, thistledown and some horse hair, the whole 

 structure looking remarkably large and flat for such a small bird. The 

 other measurements as near as I could get at them, seeing that the nest 

 had been occupied, and was some few months old, are as follows, viz: out- 

 side diameter Sf, inside 2 inches, outside depth 1\, inside f of an inch. A 

 good deal of the young birds' droppings still remained attached to the fir 

 twig foundation. No doubt the eggs had been laid very early in April. 



67. Plectrophenax nivalis nivalis (Linnaeus). Snow Bunting. — 

 Irregular winter visitant; Oct. 28 to March 18. Most of the flocks so far 

 observed of this interesting Bunting have been small ones, consisting of 

 from eight to twenty birds, the only exception being on Jan. 2, 1913, when 

 one which must have numbered well over a thousand birds paid us a visit 

 and remained in the neighbourhood for the best part of the day. 



68. PooBcetes gramineus gramineus (Gmelin). Vesper Sparrow. 

 — Common summer visitant; April 16 to Oct. 12. Average date of arrival 

 (for four years) April 22; of departm-e (for four years) Sept. 25. Eggs: 

 May 20 to July 15. This sparrow can generally be found nesting in most 

 of the fields, but more especially those that are sparsely covered with grass 

 and weeds. It is not a very abundant breeding species at any time, and 

 during the present season (1915) has really been scarce, only one nest 

 having been located. It is the only sparrow of which I have not yet found 

 a set of 5 eggs, as out of 17 nests examined nearly aU contained four eggs, 

 which would appear to be the usual number for this district. At migra- 

 tion times in common with most of the other sparrows it is seen in greatly 

 increased numjjers. 



69. Passerculus sandwichensis savanna (Wilson). Savannah 

 Sparrow. — Fairly common summer visitant; April 16 to Oct. 12. Aver- 

 age date of arrival (for four years) April 25; of departure (for four years) 

 Oct. 7. Eggs; May 24 to July 14. This is the rarest of the breeding 

 sparrows here, only a few pairs nesting in a very restricted area, in fact 

 two fields overlooldng the marsh are the only ones in Avhich I have found 

 their nests so far. These in my experience, with one exception, are always 

 well sunk in the ground, the rims being flush with the sm'face and generally 

 long grass covers the top, which makes them very difficult to locate. Out 

 of ten nests examined two only contained a set of five eggs, and one had 



