COUES ON BIRDS OF DAKOTA AND MONTANA. 



589 



List of specimens — Continued. 



POCECETES GEAMINEUS, (Om.) Bd. 

 Bay- WINGED Bunting, or Gkass Einch. 



Like tlie last, the present species extends over the whole region 

 explored, and breeds in abundance, while the general remarks upon dis- 

 tribution made in the case of the Savanna Sparrow are equally appli- 

 cable here. Several nests were found at Pembina, containing eggs, 

 about the middle of June, One of them also held two Molothrus eggs. 

 The nests were built in open ground, quite deeply sunken, so as to be 

 flush with the surface, and more substantial than those of many ground- 

 builders, the walls being an inch or more thick at the brim. The cavity 

 is small and deep in comparison with the whole nest. The usual ma- 

 terials are grasses and weed-stalks, the coarser material outside, the 

 finer fibres within and at the bottom. The eggs, of which I have not 

 found more than four, measure about 0.80 by 0.55 ; they are grayish- 

 white, heavily marked all over with spots, dashes, and blotches of red- 

 dish-brown, and sprinkling of fine dots of the same or darker brown. 

 The female is a close setter, not leaving the nest until nearly trodden 

 upon, and then fluttering off as if crippled, to distract attention from the 

 nest to herself. 



List of specimens. 



