tHE NimotodisT". 



ro3- 



andl darab. The Desert Horned Lark is 

 very taarue and comes around the farms 

 walking in and out amongst the cattle 

 and horses fiset, they are as abundant at 

 Rush Ivake as- English Sparrows are in the 

 streets of Toronto. 



McCown's lyongspur is also very abund- 

 ant at Rush Lake, but on descfendibg, the 

 Missouri Coteau eastward it becomes rare 

 and very few breed east of Assinibofa. Prof. 

 McCown informs me that he never came 

 across this species in Northwest Canada, 

 as his collecting has been confined mostly 

 to the Rocky Mountains of Alberta and 

 British Columbia. The Museum at 

 Ottawa did not possess skins of this bird 

 from Northwest Canada previous to the 

 specimens I gave them last fall. This bird, 

 like Sprague's Pipit, and Baird's Sparrow, 

 is ver}^ local; in some places they are so 

 numerous that fifty skins could be collected 

 in one day, while in other localities one 

 might travel a hundred miles and never see 

 a single specimen. I have examined scores 

 of nests of McCown's L,ongspur. They are 

 built on the ground and made of dried 

 grass, sometimes lined with a little horse 

 hair. The nests are commonly found by 

 flushing the female off the nest. The eggs 

 are entirely different to those of the Chest- 

 nut-collared lyongspur, as the ground color 

 never white, but instead it is pale olive or 

 day-colored, and the eggs are spotted and 

 streaked with brown and lilac, and average 

 in size .82X.62. The male bird has a 

 pleasant song as it springs up into the air 

 and soars for a minute, and then comes 

 (down with a parachute-like descent, sing- 

 ing all the time, and the bird never sings 

 except when it is on the wing. 



After supper I had a long chat with the 

 scout, and gathered a deal of information 

 from him of his experience with the Indians, 

 Buffalo hunts, etc. He informed me that 

 wild Swans used to breed amongst the 

 lakes in this region. The last nest he found 

 was in the spring of 1885, during the North- 

 west Rebellion. He and another half- 

 breed were scouting in the vicinity of 



Sounding lyake, Saskatchewan, and while 

 riding around the lake they noticed a 

 Trumpeter Swian fly from an island a short 

 distance from the shore. So the scout dis- 

 mounted and told his companion to lead 

 his horse to a butte close by, from the sum- 

 mit of which he could be on the look-out for 

 approaching Indians, while he took off his 

 clothes and swam to the island, where he 

 found the nest containing four fresh eggs, 

 which he took, and they ate them for sup- 

 per. He said the nest was a large struct- 

 ure of rushes, sods and grass, and the center 

 was lined with down and feathers. The 

 Trumpeter Swan, like the Canada Goose, 

 is an early breeder, and eggs are often found 

 while the snow is still on the ground. A 

 set of five eggs of the Trumpeter Swan were 

 collected for me April 7th, 1891, at Buffalo 

 Lake, Assiniboia. The nest was three feet 

 in diameter, and composed of sods, grass, 

 feathers, etc., and the eggs are yellowish- 

 white, and average 4. 25x2.60. It was mid- 

 night before the scout, the ranchman and 

 myself ceased talking of our prairie adven- 

 tures and retired for the night. 



May 30th, Early this morning one of 

 the cowboys came round to the farm with 

 a wagon and team as pre-arranged, and we 

 took my canvas canoe, camera, guns and 

 provisions for the day, and drove some 

 miles north, to the lake near the South 

 Saskatchewan River. After a pleasant 

 drive over the hilly prairie, the lake at last 

 appeared in sight. It was the same lake I 

 had visited two years previous, and I never 

 thought I should again ramble around its 

 sandy beach. The canvas canoe was put 

 together and launched, and taking our 

 guns and the camera, we left the wagon 

 and horses and rowed to the island where I 

 had found the Avocets breeding on my last 

 visit. On approaching closer to the island 

 a Canada Goose rose with its heavy flight. 

 One or two pairs nest here every year, and 

 on this occasion we were not disappointed. 

 On reaching the island, scores of Avocets, 

 Ring-billed Gulls and Foster's Terns came 

 flying around us, and the noise was so 



