494 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 
BREEDING Notes.—Nest bulky, near stone quarry, built on 
the ground composed of grass and weed stalks, lined with horse 
hair and fine grass; eggs 4, grayish white, marked all over with 
spots and splashes of dull reddish brown. (G. R. White.) Arrives in 
New Brunswick from winter quarters during April. Have found 
nests with full sets of eggs early in May; and once a nest with three 
eggs was found with partly incubated eggs in September. (W. H. 
Moore.) This species breeds around Ottawa in May and. June. 
Nest sunken in the ground, the brim being on a level with the soil ; 
nest composed of grass rootlets with sometimes a few bits of green 
moss or a few hairs; four or five eggs are the usual number. (Gar- 
neau.) Found a vesper sparrow’s nest containing three eggs, May 
2nd, 1906, near Westmount, Que. The nest was built of grasses and 
stems with a heavy lining of horse-hair and was placed in a clump of 
dead grass in a field which was for the most part damp and marshy. 
(W. J. Brown.) 
540a. Western Vesper Sparrow. 
Poocetes gramineus confinis BAIRD. 1858. 
This species breeds from Pembina on the east to the base of the 
Rocky mountains on the west along the 49th parallel. (Coues.) 
A very abundant summer resident on the prairies of Manitoba. 
(E. T. Seton.) Abundant at Aweme, Man. (Criddle.) Abundant 
breeder all over Manitoba and west to Edmonton, Alta. (Atkimson.) 
This species arrives on the Saskatchewan plains early in May, and 
frequents the withered grass which makes an excellent cover. It 
was not seen by us beyond lat. 57°. (Richardson.) On 26th June, 
1864, we found a nest of this species containing six eggs in a sparsely 
wooded tract of country to the east of Fort Anderson. (Macfarlane.) 
Quite a common summer resident throughout the country around 
Prince Albert, Sask., and to be seen running ahead on every trail; 
breeding in great numbers in the region. (Cowbeaux.) In 1895 
this species was common from Winnipeg to the Rocky mountains on 
or near the 4gth parallel. It always nested on the ground, but 
seemed to prefer being where there is more or less brush; it was 
first found nesting on June 2nd. First seen at Indian Head, Sask., 
on May oth, 1892, common by the 13th; found two nests on the 
ground, June 7th, with four eggs in each; first seen at Medicine 
