CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 357 



until the middle of the month. The usual site of the nest is the 

 upright crotch formed by three or more diverging twigs of some 

 sapling or stout bush, usually ten or twelve feet from the ground. 

 One nest that I took I could reach standing on the ground, but 

 another was in a slender elm tree some 40 feet high, on a swaying 

 bough, but in a crotch of upright twigs as usual. The female 

 during incubation is as close a sitter as some of the ground 

 sparrows. In one instance I came within an arm's length before 

 the bird flew, and then she merely fluttered out -of reach and 

 stood uttering a disconsolate note. The nest is usually let deeply 

 down into the crotch and bears the impress of the twigs. It is 

 composed of intertwined strips of fine fibrous inner bark and de- 

 composed weedy substances, matted with a great quantity of soft 

 plant-down, and finished with a lining of a few horse hairs or fine 

 grasses, making a firm, warm fabric, with a smooth, even brim 

 about 2J^ inches across outside and less than 2 inches deep ; 

 general shape tends somewhat to be conical, but much depends 

 upon the site of the nest. The walls are thin, sometimes barely 

 coherent along the track of the supporting twigs. The cavity is 

 large for the size of the nest, scarcely or not contracted at the 

 top; and about as wide as deep. In six instances I found not more 

 than four eggs, which seems to be the full complement. These 

 are pure white in colour, of ordinary shape (but variable in this 

 respect), and measure about two-thirds of an inch in length by 

 one-half in breadth. Extremes of length noted were 0^59 and 

 0'68 ; the diameter is less variable. (Cotees.) Nests every year at 

 Kew Beach, Toronto ; also breeds commonly in Manitoba and 

 Assiniboia. {W. Raine.) Breeds in the vicinity of Ottawa. 

 Builds a small, neat, compact, deep-cupped nest in upright crotch 

 of tree ; nest is composed of fine fibrous inner bark, and the 

 decomposing outer substance of various weeds, lined with a soft 

 plant down, horse hair and fine grass tops. Eggs three or four, 

 pure white. {G. R. White.) June 2nd, 1897, found two nests at 

 Edmonton, Alta., one in the fork of a small poplar about two feet 

 from the ground. Nest very compact, just like a yellow warbler's 

 nest, four eggs nearly fresh. The other was in a larger poplar 

 about 25 feet from the ground; nest same as the first; eggs nearly 

 fresh; next day found two more nests; one in a willow about 

 seven feet feet from the ground. The other was in a balsam 

 poplar about two feet from the ground. Nest very compact, 

 composed chiefly of willow down lined with a little dried grass. 



