CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 23 1 



of any other birds being taken in Muskoka district. {Spreadborough.) 

 Two males taken at Norway House, Lake Winnipeg, June i8th, 

 common there in September. Downy young taken at Oxford 

 House and ' old birds at Echimamish. {Preble.) According to 

 Bishop Newnham, the sharp-tails arrive at Moose Factory, James 

 bay from the northeast. They frequently stay all winter and leave 

 in the spring. At Lake Abitibi they are said to occur pretty regularly 

 in . October. On Lake Temiskaming they do not seem to occur 

 regularly, though the bird is frequently found there in October. 

 (/. H. Fleming.) 



Mr. A. P. Low puts its northern hmit in Labrador at lat. 57°. It 

 has been killed in winter at Great Whale river. Since the building 

 of the Canadian Pacific railway this bird has been seen frequently 

 on the line between Mattawa, on the Ottawa river, and Fort William, 

 west of Lake Superior. It has been supposed to be the prairie species 

 working east, but its dark colour shows that it is the northern bird. 

 It is extremely probable that in coming years it will be a common 

 species in the sparsely settled parts of northern Ontario. 



The northern hmit of the range of this grouse is Great Slave 

 lake, on the 6ist parallel. It abounds on the outskirts of the 

 Saskatchewan plains, and is found throughout the wooded districts 

 of the Northwest Territories. (Richardson.) This grouse breeds 

 in the pine forests on both sides of the Lockhart and Upper Anderson 

 rivers, where one or two nests were met with. (Macfarlane.) The 

 form occuring at Quesnel, B.C. is apparently the typical northern 

 species. {Brooks.) This bird is mentioned by Dall as a not un- 

 common species at Fort Yukon and for 200 miles down this river 

 to the Ramparts, below which it was not found. (Nelson.) 



Breeding Notes. — ^These birds keep in pairs or small flocks 

 and frequent the juniper plains all the year. The buds of these 

 shrubs are their principal food in winter, as their berries are in 

 summer. They generally remain about the same spot, unless dis- 

 turbed ; their flights are short. They frequently walk on the ground 

 and when raised will fly to the top of an adjacent tree. In June 

 they make a nest on the ground with grass and feathers. They lay 

 from four to seven white eggs with coloured spots. (Hutchins vide 

 Seton.) 



