CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 42S 



'518. Cassin's Purple Pinch. 



Carpodacus cassini Baird. 1854. 

 Western States from the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains 

 to the Pacific Coast, and north to British Columbia. {Ridgway.) 

 A few examples, probably of this species, were found breeding 

 in the interior of British Columbia. {Rhoods.) Both sides of 

 Coast Range, B.C. {Fannin.) Summer resident at Soda Creek, 

 and probably also at Quesnel, B.C., 1901. {Brooks.) Taken at 

 Spence's Bridge and Kamloops in June 1889. One specimen seen 

 •at Trail, near the International Boundary, B.C., in May, 1902. 

 Quite common at Penticton, B.C., in April, 1903, feeding in the 

 tops of bull pine {Pinus ponderosa), on their seeds. {Spreadborough^ 



MUSEUM SPECIMENS. 



Fourteen taken at Penticton, B.C., by Spreadborough, 1903. 



CLXXXVII. PASSER Brisson. 



House Sparrow. 



Passer dome sticus (Linnaeus) Koch. 1816. 

 This species has become naturalized in all Canadian cities, towns 

 and small villages and in many farm-yards, where it lives in 

 winter in affluence on the oats found in the droppings of horses. 

 It is quite abundant in the autumn, but whether it finds a scarcity 

 of food or abundance it is always in evidence in spring, and where 

 it once gets a foothold it retains it and spreads further. It is 

 abundant everywhere in the eastern provinces, in the settled 

 parts of Quebec and Ontario, and, although spoken against 

 everywhere, it destroys an enormous quantity of noxious weeds 

 in waste grounds and vacant places in cities and their suburbs, 

 by eating their seeds, in September, October and November, 

 until the snow comes, when it takes to the streets. In 1894, a 

 few pairs were seen near the railway station at Winnipeg, Man., 

 since then they have spread rapidly westward. {Macoun.) This 

 bird is gradually extending its range westward and northwest- 

 ward. I found it nesting at Yorkton, northern Assa., in June, 

 1901, and Mr. Hugh Richardson, during the summer of 1901, sent 

 me two sets (of what he called rare eggs) of a bird that had never 

 been seen before in the Qu'Appelle valley, Assa.j a bird unknown 



