CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 533 



none have been observed near London; this species/however, is a 

 steadily common breeder in the west, all over the country south 

 of Lake St. Clair and becomes less numerous and more southern 

 as one comes east; the three nests so far recorded in Ontario 

 were all on the ground, though it is often placed higher in the 

 prairie states ; the four or five blue eggs have a striking resemblance 

 to those of the bluebird. {W.E.Saunders.) On June 14th, 1897, while 

 doing some miscellaneous collecting near the big slough at Port- 

 age la Prairie, Man., a strange bird flushed out of the grass and 

 alighted on a fence-post; I immediately secured* it and was very 

 surprised to discover that I had collected a fine male black- 

 throated bunting; no others were seen. {Geo. E. Atkinson.) One 

 individual taken on Sable Island, N.S„ Sept. 12th, 1902. (James 

 Bouteillier.) 



MUSEUM SPECIMEN. 



One specimen purchased with the Holman collection in 1885. 



CCXin. CALAMOSPIZA Bonaparte. 1838. 



605. Lark Banting, White-winged Blackbird. 



Calamospisa melanocorys Stejn. 1885. 

 The apparent absence of this species from the Red River 

 region with its abundance on the Missouri is one of .the strong 

 marks of difference in the fauna of the two watersheds. It is an 

 abundant and characteristic species of the sage-brush country of 

 the upper Missouri and extends thence to the Rocky Mountains 

 through the Milk River region. The bird is rather a late breeder 

 unless the eggs found July 9th and 21st were those of a second 

 brood. The eggs are four or five in number, like those of the 

 blue-bird and normally unmarked, though occasionally sparsely 

 dotted. Two cow-bird's eggs were found in one of the nests 

 secured. The nest is sunk in the ground so that the brim 

 is flush with the surface, and is built of grass and weed-stalksi 

 lined with similar but finer material. {Coues.) A probable summer 

 resident of southwestern Manitoba. {Thompson- Seion.) Occa- 

 sionally seen east of Crane Lake, but m its neighbourhood they 

 were quite common and breeding late in June, 1894. They 

 always placed their nests on the ground under sage brush {Arte- 

 misia caiid); this they did in all parts of the prairie region where 

 they were found. In 1895 they were found in some numbers at 



