CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 457 



summer resident in Manitoba, local in distribution, many pairs 

 affecting- a limited area of dry prairie, while for miles no more of 

 this species are to be seen. {Thomfson-Seton.) First seen at 

 Indian Head, Assa., May 12th, 1892, by the i8th they were com- 

 mon; they breed there in great numbers; very common at Crane 

 Lake; seen in large flocks flying in company with McCown's bunt- 

 ing at Medicine Hat, May 2nd, 1894 ; breeding in large numbers 

 at Crane Lake in June; found three nests with young and one 

 with four fresh eggs June 12th, 1894, the nest was a rather deep 

 hole in the ground, lined with a little dried grass; nest on the 

 open prairie in short grass ; rare at the Cypress Hills, only one 

 specimen seen in a week. {Spreadborough.) Quite common 

 at Brandon, Man., and Moose Jaw, Assa., in 1896. This is a 

 common bird everywhere on the prairie from Indian Head, Assa., 

 westward to Frenchman's River; this species, the horned lark 

 and McCown's bunting make up nearly the whole avi-fauna of the 

 absolute prairie. It is exclusively a prairie bird and is more or 

 less common in all the country traversed in 1895 to Milk River. 

 No nests were taken before June i8th, though in the preceding 

 year young were hatched before that date. (Macoun) I have 

 found this bird breeding abundantly throughout the prairie parts 

 of Manitoba and Assiniboia. It was especially numerous on the 

 prairie north of Moose Jaw, Assa., where during the first week of 

 June, 1891, I found many nests on the ground at the side of sods 

 and containing five or six eggs each. {W. Raine.) 



Breeding Notes. — My first specimens were secured July 14th, 

 1873, at which dates the early broods were already on wing. 

 Uniting of several families had scarcely begun, however, nor were 

 small flocks made up, apparently, till the first broods had, as a 

 general thing, been left to themselves, the parents busying them- 

 selves with a second set of eggs. Then straggling troops, con- 

 sisting chiefly of birds of the year, were almost continually seen, 

 mixing freely with Baird's buntings and the skylarks; in fact, 

 most of the congregations of prairie birds that were successively 

 disturbed by our advancing wagon-trains consisted of all three of 

 these, with a considerable sprinkling of Savanna sparrows, shore 

 larks and bay-winged buntings. The first eggs I secured were 

 July i8th, nearly a week after I had found young on wing; these 

 were fresh; other nests examined at the same time contained 

 newly hatched young. Again, I have found fresh eggs so late as 



