BIRDS 253 



Seven specimens. An adult female and a juvenile 

 male, Cochrane River, July 26 ; an adult male, 

 Cochrane River, July 30. " Male and female with 

 fledged young," a female, and young bird, Coch- 

 rane River, July 31 ; a female, Cochrane River, 

 August 3, " bird in company with others, pro- 

 bably her fully fledged young " ; an adult female, 

 Lake Du Brochet, August 6 adult's " bill dull 

 sienna-brown," juveniles' " bill blackish brown, 

 yellow along edges of mandibles and at corners of 

 mouth." So little is known of the early plumage 

 of this sparrow that a description of the young 

 of July 31 may not be out of place : " Length 

 3*75 in. ; pileum with feathers brownish black, 

 indistinctly edged with greyish buff, producing 

 a dark crown with a few greyish-buff spots ; 

 throat and chin greyish buff, throat with a few 

 blackish-brown spots; chest brownish buff streaked 

 with brownish black ; flanks buff with brown 

 streaks ; rest of under parts buffy white. Above 

 brown streaked with black, upper tail coverts 

 brownish buff, tail darker than in adult ; wing 

 coverts tipped with buff. 



Three observed south end lie & la Crosse Lake, 

 May 24. Their first encountered breeding haunts 

 were found on the Cochrane River about latitude 

 58. Country fairly mountainous, and the hillside, 

 which the birds frequented, was bare of tall 

 growth, and bouldered and thickly strewn with 

 dead timber for at some past date the country- 

 side had been swept by forest-fire. Small spruce 

 and scrub pine, of a height of two feet to six feet, 

 grew here and there, while willows, tamarack, 

 and small spruce grew somewhat more densely 

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