BIRDS OF NOETIIERN CANADA 387- 



all the specimens are exceedingly minute and are also few 

 in number, well rounded in outline, and mostly distributed 

 about the larger end of the egg; they are of a liver browa 

 colour. The lighter lavender-coloured markings originally 

 on Mr. Gale's eggs are barely visible now, having faded out."' 

 There are seven skins and but one set of eggs, taken at 

 Trail, B.C., June 1-ith, 1902, by Mr. Spreadborough, in the 

 Ottawa Museum! 



It may be here remarked that one of the referred-to nests 

 was found by Mr. Charles Ogden at Fort George, Fraser 

 River, on 5th June, 1889. It contained four eggs, two of 

 which he was considerate enough to leave therein for incuba- 

 tion by the parent birds. 



474. Pallid Hoened LxYek — Otocoris alpestris arcticola 



(Coues). 



Under 0. alpestris leucolcema (Coues) Major Bendire- 

 expresses himself as follows : " In his ' ISTotes on and List 

 of Birds and Eggs Collected in Arctic America, 1861-1866,' 

 Mr. R. MacFarlane says, in speaking of this species : ' ISTine- 

 nests of this lark were received at Fort Anderson (established 

 on Anderson River in 1861, and abandoned in 1866, approxi- 

 mate latitude 68° 30' north), a few of them from the Eskimos, 

 and the others were collected by ns in the " Barrens," 

 and on the coast of Franklin Bay. The nests are usually 

 composed of fine hay, neatly disposed, and lined with deer 

 hair. Several of the parent birds were secured by snares 

 placed thereon.' . . . The earliest breeding record I have,, 

 one from the lower Anderson River, in Arctic JSTorth America,, 

 is June 14th; the latest, from the same locality, is July 

 9th, 1864, and the breeding season appears to be at its height 

 there during the first week in July, as all the nests takem 

 by Mr. MacFarlane, excepting the single one just mentioned, 

 were taken in this month. The nest belonging to the earliest 

 set of eggs is now before me. It measures five inches in 

 outer diameter by two and one-half inches in height. The 



