684 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



Coast Range. Corpmon around Lake "Okanagan, B.C., in winter, 

 associating with chickadees. Rather common in winter in the 

 Cariboo district of B.C. • {Brooks.) 



Two specimens were taken inCumshewa Inlet, Queen Charlotte 

 Islands, B.C., June i8th and June 22nd respectively. No others 

 were seen' during our stay. {Osgood.) I took a male at Skagway, 

 Alaska, May 31st, and another at Log Cabin, June 20th, and heard 

 one on an island at the junction of the Lewis and Pelly rivers, 

 near Fort Selkirk, Yukon district, July 26th.' This species has not 

 heretofore been noted in the Yukon valley. {Bishop.) 



Breeding Notes. — The eggs of this species are laid by May 

 loth, at Scotch Lake, York Co., N.B., in a hole excavated in a dead 

 tree, preferably a spruce or fir. The nest is generally about four 

 inches below the entrance, and is composed of bark, fibre, fur and 

 a few feathers. The cavity is about three inches in diameter and 

 is sometimes made with great labour. On one occasion a pair 

 were found digging a cavity, March 26th, and at that date could 

 get half the size of the bird into the hole. Knots were struck 

 about -two inches down and late in April they had to give up their 

 •site and find a new place. Before leaving they had collected 

 quite a coating of balsam about the entrance, perhaps for the 

 purpose of keeping out large ants or mice. Both male and female 

 work at nest making. The number of eggs is six, each of which 

 is set in a light depression in the nest lining. {W.H. Moore.) In 

 June, 1893, I found this bird nesting at Rush Lake, Assa. There 

 are no trees at Rush Lake, so the bird laid its eggs in a hole in a 

 beam on the stable-roof. {W.Raine.) Last summer I found a 

 nest of the red-breasted nuthatch. It was dug in a rotten stump 

 five feet from the ground, and contained young birds almost able 

 to fly. Around the entrance to the nest was a ring of pine or 

 balsam gum, and as I saw the young birds picking at it I inferred 

 it was an insect trap. I also found three nests of the chickadee, 

 ^nd each was lined with the hair of the Lepus americana. {G. E. 

 Atkinson in Trans. Can. Inst., Vol. Ill,, 3rd Series.) 



MUSEUM SPECIMENS. 



Twenty-one; one taken at Ottawa by the writer on May 12, 

 1888, another by Mr. G. R. White, Dec. 16, 1888, and two others 

 by Dr. F. A. Saunders in Nov. 1890; one taken at London, Ont., 

 May 10, 1881, by Mr. W. E. Saunders ; one taken at Medicine Hat, 



