CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 445 



the foothills of the Rocky mountains in Alberta. {W. Raine.) 

 These birds arrive on the Saskatchewan about the beginning of 

 May and. soon after pair and commence to breed. They build their 

 nests like rooks, several in the same tree and occasionally in the 

 loose sticks of an osprey's nest. {Richardson.) North to Fort 

 Simpson on the Mackenzie river ; rare. (Ross.) 



Breeding Notes. — In the neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ont., this 

 species nests in a tree or bush. Its nest is built of mud ; lined with 

 grass and rootlets, horse hair and leaves. Eggs five to six, bluish 

 or greenish with purple veining and clouding with dark brown and 

 blackish. (G. R. White.) This species nests in barns on islands 

 and intervales along the St. John river, N.B.; sometimes there 

 being three and four nests in one barn. They are usually built on 

 beams or in the angle of a post and brace of the framework. The 

 eggs number from three to five and are hatched by May 24th. (W. 

 H. Moore.) Numbers were building in holes of dead ash-leaved maple 

 at Old Wives creek, Sask., in May, 1895. One nest was taken on 

 May 30th in a clump of tall choke-cherries. It was about six feet 

 from tho ground and was about eight inches across and built of the 

 stems of various weeds. The inside was plastered with earth and 

 afterwards lined with grass stems and a little horse hair. It was 

 shaped like the nest of Brewer's blackbird, but smaller. {Macoun.) 

 Most of the nests are built in cedar and other coniferous trees ; some 

 are fixed to the reeds in the marshes, while others are placed in 

 barns with nests of robins, of phoebes and of barn swallows. They 

 are composed of coarse grass and mud, and lined with finer grass. 

 Their dimensions are 6 inches in diameter by 4 or 5 inches in height, 

 and their cavity has 4 inches in diameter by 3 in depth. The birds 

 lay five eggs at the beginning of May. {A. L. Garneau.) 



Family XL. PRINGILLID.^. Finches, Sparrows, &c. 



CCVII. HESPERIPHONA Bonaparte. 1850. 



514. Evening Grosbeak. 



Hesperiphona vespertina (W. CoovBS.) Bonaparte. 1850. 

 On November 24th, 1903, four specimens of the evening grosbeak 

 were brought to me, three males and a female, that had been killed 

 in the woods near Quebec. Later, about the end of January, 1904, 



