In North-West Canada. 61 



me is composed of dead, dried grass, lined with feathers ; the top 

 of the nest was flush with the surrounding sand. In this set, 

 collected June 14th, 1889, the four eggs are almost as large as 



oo o 



those of the European skylark, averaging 93x65. They have 

 a grey ground, mottled all over with olive-brown and lilac. 

 They resemble in size the eggs of the shore lark from Lapland, 

 and when compared with several sets of the prairie-horned 

 lark from Iowa and Minnesota, it is at once seen that they are 

 considerably larger. As there are a number of geographical 

 varieties of the shore lark; there has always been an uncertainty 

 in their identification and breeding ranges. 



We carefully packed the eggs of the pallid-horned lark and 

 the two cowbirds, and walked along the beach of the lake to- 

 wards a place where avosets were very numerous, but we 

 were unable to find a single nest. We shot a pair of avosets, 

 and later on, a small sandpiper, unknown to me, but which 

 turned out to be the least sandpiper, tringa minutilla. As we 

 afterwards saw several others around the lake, we concluded 

 they were breeding, but unless these small sandpipers are 

 flushed off their nests, the eggs are difficult to find. A set of 

 four eggs, collected in Labrador, June 20th, 1887, are bufFy 

 drab, spotted with brown and purple grey, they average in 

 size 1.12x82. This bird is also known as the American stint. 

 John shot a curlew and two avosets, and the report of his gun 

 caused a shoveller to fly from a patch of marsh grass to the 

 lake. After some time we found its nest of down and nine 

 greyish buff-coloured eggs. They were slightly incubated. 



Our companion, with his ' team of horses, had found a suit- 

 able resting-place, so he took out the horses and gave them a 

 drink ; and when we arrived, we decided it was lunch-time, 

 as our long drive over the prairie had made our appetites keen. 

 So we satisfied our hunger with antelope sandwiches, fruit 

 pies and milk. As it began to rain, we took shelter under the 

 buckboard, but the shower was soon over, so John and I set 

 out to explore the lake, while our companion, the farm manag- 

 er, said he felt like having a sleep, so we left him, as we were 

 too much interested in the surroundings to think of napping. 



