598 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOOICAL SUKVEY. 



GONIAPHBA LUDOVICIANA, (Linn.) Bowd. 



EOSE-BREASTED GKOSBEAK. 



I was pleased to find this truly elegant bird breeding in abundance 

 at Pembina in the undergrowth of the heavy timber along the banks of 

 the Red River, as I had never before enjoyed a good opportunity of 

 studying its habits. It was not observed at any other point along the 

 Line, though stated to penetrate as far northward as the Saskatchewan 

 region. A fine suite of specimens was carefully preserved, and several 

 sets of eggs procured. The birds were mating and in full song by the 

 beginning of June, when I arrived upon the spot, but no nests were 

 found until the 21st. Four was the largest number found in a nest; others 

 contained only two or three, but in all incubation had begun. The only 

 nest I took myself was built in a thick grove of saplings, about eight 

 feet from the ground ; it contained three eggs averaging an inch in 

 length by three-fourths in breadth. These were of a pale dull green 

 color, profusely speckled with reddish-brown. The nests were rather 

 rude and bulky structures, about six inches across outside by four 

 in depth, with the cavity only half as much each way, owing to the 

 thickness of the loose walls. They were built entirely of the slender 

 tortuous stems and rootlets of some climbing shrub, for the most part 

 loosely interlaced, though more firmly, evenly, and circularly laid 

 around the brim, and finished sometimes with a little horse-hair lining, 

 sometimes without. The male at this season has a delightful song. The 

 female is, however, nearly voiceless, and of extremely retiring disposi- 

 tion. 



List of speeimens. 



PIPILO ERYTHROPHTHALMUS, {Linn.) Vieill. 



TowHEE BuNTme. 



The Pipilo of the Red River Valley is clearly referable to true ery- 

 throphthalmns J though even in this locality, decidedly Eastern io the com- 



