^°^i910^^^] Ferrv, Summer Birds of Saskatchewan. 195 



eggs. All were much incubated, and one set of five eggs hatched June 12. 

 A strange thing was that we saw no young geese except the brood wliich 

 we found before they had left the nest. Several times large flocks con- 

 taining from ten to thirty-five birds were seen. 



"All of the nests were merely piles of dead grass placed usually near the 

 ends of the islands. On the grass there was a depression in the top lined 

 with down from the goose. One nest was on the very edge of a Ring-billed 

 Gull colony, against the base of wliich two different gulls had constructed 

 their nests." (Barnes.) 



On June 17 a nest was found containing seven eggs. The female flew 

 when Mr. Barnes was about seventy-five yards distant, uttering deep 

 melancholy honks. On hearing them the male goose joined her and 

 together, a short distance out in the lake, they kept up an anxious honking. 



A nest was found on July 1 1 from which the bird was flushed. An odd 

 looking egg was all that was in the nest. It looked' like an egg of the 

 Canvas-back, but it may have been a runt goose egg badly nest stained. 

 A set of six highly incubated eggs were given to a farmer to place under a 

 hen. They all hatched. The hen cared for them for about two weeks 

 when a tame goose was substituted. In September a letter informed us 

 that the whole brood was as large as adults and had once taken wing and 

 flown to the lake. They were easily recaptured. On June 16 Canada 

 Geese were seen flying over the lake in groups of two, eight and three; 

 on June 17 flocks of twenty and ten, and several of two and three. 



27. Botaurus lentiginosus. Bittern. — "But one specimen seen at 

 Quill Lake." (Barnes.) July 5 another was seen on the south shore. 

 The bird was common about Prince Albert. 



28. Grus americana. Whooping Crane. — "June 14 we saw a splendid 

 specimen of this species standing on the wide muddy flat at the north end 

 of Big Quill Lake. We examined it carefully with our glasses, and en- 

 deavored to stalk it. This was the only specimen seen. Our assistant, 

 who lives on the shore of the lake, told us he had killed an adult specimen 

 of this species some fifty miles north of Quill Lake during the present 

 spring. His younger brother, a lad of fifteen, told us that a pair of birds 

 had been seen along the east side of Big Quill Lake nearly all the spring." 

 (Barnes.) 



29. Grus mexicana. Sandhill Crane. — "Not a common bird, though 

 at least one pair nested near Big Quill Lake. A nest was found on June 

 20 in the swamp where the water was from eight to ten inches deep, and 

 through which had grown large swamp grass to the height of a man's 

 shoulder. Among tliis a nest was built wliich appeared very much like the 

 upper third of an ordinary hay cock, with a depression at the top. One 

 egg, apparently about one-third to one-half incubated, with the side torn 

 out (probably by some animal), was found on the edge of the nest. The 

 birds were seen at the time the nest was discovered witliin a few yards of 

 the nest." (Barnes.) 



About August 1 the birds were common. We saw as many as six to- 



