388 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 
month secured a large series of specimens, including many nests 
and eggs, the latter not until the middle of the month. The usual 
site of the nest is the upright crotch formed by three or more diverg- 
ing twigs of some sapling or stout bush, usually ten or twelve feet 
from the ground. One nest that I took I could reach standing on 
the ground, but another was in a slender elm tree some 40 feet high, 
on a swaying bough, but in a crotch of upright twigs, as usual. The 
female during incubation is as close a sitter as some of the ground 
sparrows. In one instance, I came within an arm’s length before 
the bird flew, and then she merely fluttered out of reach and stood 
uttering a disconsolate note. The nest is usually let deeply down 
into the crotch and bears the impress of the twigs. It is composed 
of intertwined strips of fine fibrous inner bark and decomposed 
weedy substances, matted with a great quantity of soft plant-down, 
and finished with a lining of a few horse hairs or fine grasses, making 
a firm, warm fabric, with a smooth, even brim about 24 inches 
across outside and less than 2 inches deep; general shape tends some- 
what to be conical, but much depends upon the site of the nest. The 
walls are thin, sometimes barely coherent along the track of the 
supporting twigs. The cavity is large for the size of the nest, scarcely 
or not contracted at the top; and about as wide as deep. In six 
instances, I found not more than four eggs, which seems to be the 
full complement. These are pure white in colour, of ordinary shape 
(but variable in this respect), and measure about two-thirds of an 
inch in length by one-half in breadth. Extremes of length noted 
were 0.59 and 0.68; the diameter is less variable. (Coues.) Nests 
every year at Kew Beach, Toronto; also breeds commonly in Mani- 
toba and Saskatchewan. (W. Raine.) Breeds in the vicinity of 
Ottawa. Builds a small, neat, compact, deep-cupped nest in up- 
right crotch of tree; nest is composed of fine fibrous inner bark, and 
the decomposing outer substance of various weeds, lined with a 
soft plant down, horse hair and fine grass tops. Eggs, three or four; 
pure white. (G. R. White.) One nest was found in the month of 
June in the upright fork of a small elm tree, four feet from the ground. 
It measured 2.50 inches in diameter and 2.50 in height; the cavity 
had a diameter of two inches and a depth of 1.75 inches. (A. L. 
Garneau.) June 2nd, 1897, found two nests at Edmonton, Alta., 
one in the fork of a small poplar about two feet from the ground. 
Nest very compact, just like a yellow warbler’s nest, four eggs nearly 
