CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 527 
ing around Prince Albert, Sask. (Couwbeaux.) This species fre- 
quented the farm-yard at Carlton House on the Saskatchewan, 
and was as sociable as the English house sparrow. (zchardson.) 
North of Fort Resolution on Great Slave lake. (Ross.) Two 
males taken at 150-Mile House, Cariboo district, B.C., July 3rd, 
1901. (Brooks.) 
BREEDING Notes.—Upon my arrival, the 1st of June, the bunt- 
ings were all paired, the males were in full song, nidification was 
mostly finished, and the eggs were about to be laid. The first 
specimen procured, June 2nd contained a fully formed egg. A 
nest taken June 5th was scarcely completed. The first complement 
of eggs was taken June 11th; it numbered four. I think the eggs 
are mostly laid by the end of the second week in June. The nest 
is placed in bushes, generally within a few inches of the ground; 
it resembles that of the chipbird, though it is not so neatly and 
artistically finished, and often lacks the horse-hair lining, which is 
so constant and conspicuous a feature of the latter; in size it aver- 
ages about three inches across outside by two in depth, with a 
cavity two inches wide and-one and a half inches deep; the struc- 
ture is of fine grasses and slender weed-stalks, with or without 
some fine rootlets, sometimes lined with hair, like the chippy’s, 
sometimes with very fine grass tops; it is placed in a crotch of the 
bush or in a tuft of weeds; the copses of scrubby willows I found 
to be favorite nesting places, though any of the shrubbery along 
the river bank seemed to answer; on those occasions when I ap- 
proached a nest containing eggs, the female fluttered silently and 
furtively away, without venturing a protest; the eggs I found in 
one case to be deposited daily till the complement was filled; they 
measure 0.62 in length by 0.50 in breadth on an average; the 
ground-colour is light dull green, sparsely but distinctly speckled 
with some rich and other darker shades of brown, these markings 
being chiefly confined to the larger end, or wreathed about it, 
though there are often a few specks here and there over the rest of 
the surface; from the earliness of the first sets of eggs, I suppose 
that two broods may be reared each season. (Coues.) The spot 
chosen for their home is mostly in a low bush, not more than a foot 
from the ground; as exception to this rule I have noted five nests on 
the ground and one or two at a height of three feet; it is a very 
slight structure, a good deal like that of a chipping sparrow, but 
