194 Bird-Nesting 



June, and fresh eggs are found as late as the middle of July. 

 In the same bluff where I took the clutch of sharp-shinned 

 hawks, I came across a red-tailed buzzard feeding on a gopher. 

 It flew off on my approaching near to it, carrying away the 

 gopher. This large buzzard breeds throughout Manitoba, 

 making its nest of sticks in the highest trees in the bluffs. 

 The eggs vary from two to three, rarely four, and they can 

 be distinguished from those of the Swainson's and red-shoul- 

 dered buzzards by their larger size. I have before me one 

 clutch of four effefs. four clutches of three and four clutches of 



OO * 



two eggs. The average size is 2.35x1.80. The eggs vary con- 

 siderably ; the ground colour is white or bluish white, some 

 are sparingly marked with pale brown or purplish grey, others 

 are heavily spotted and blotched with various shades of brown, 

 chiefly towards the larger end. I have in front of me a beau- 

 tiful clutch of three eggs, which are not only unusually 

 heavily marked, but the}^ are also very large specimens. This 

 set of three eggs was taken near Littleton, New Hampshire, 

 April 30th, 1884. The ground colour is white. Two of the 

 eggs are blotched and spotted, chiefly at the larger end, with 

 rich brown and lilac. The third egg, the most handsome 

 of the three, is heavily blotched and spotted with umber brown 

 and lilac, chiefly at the smaller half of the egg, and is the 

 richest marked specimen I ever saw, reminding one of the 

 osprey's egg. (See plate l,fig. 6.) These three eggs measure 

 2.50x1.89, 2.37x1.84 and 2.40x1.75. 



I now struck out across the flat plain, but the sun was so 

 powerful I was glad to again seek the shelter of a bluff from 

 old Sol's powerful rays. On returning to Winnipeg I learnt the 

 thermometer had registered 100 degrees in the shade at noon, 

 so it is no wonder I felt the power of the blazing sun out on 

 the open plain. 



On entering a bluff I was saluted by a number of jays, cat- 

 birds, and thrushes, and also flushed a Canadian ruffed grouse 

 off its nest and fourteen eggs ; they were advanced in incubation, 

 so I did not take them. The eggs were dark-buff, faintly 

 speckled with pale-brown. The nest consisted of a hollow in 

 the ground, lined with leaves, under shelter of a shrub. 



