394 TIIEOUGH TPIE MACKENZIE BASIN 



1889. Bare in this quarter. The Indian says this is the 

 first of the kind he has ever seen. Before skinning the 

 measurements were 12.30, Y.50, and 4.50 inches. Later 

 in the season another skin was obtained from Fort George, 

 Eraser River. This species was formerly known as Pici- 

 corvus columbianus. " The nest of this species is an elaborate 

 structure and well secured from strong winds, and is always 

 built on trees, some fifteen to thirty feet above the ground. 

 The eggs are two and three in number. Incubation lasts 

 about sixteen or seventeen days, and both parents assist, 

 while they are equally devoted in attention to the young. 

 They follow them about for some time, and when able to 

 provide for themselves all of these birds suddenly disappear 

 from their breeding grounds. They nest very early, but 

 only one brood seems to be raised in a season. The eggs of 

 this nutcracker are ovate and elongate ovate in shape. The 

 ground colour is usually pale gray green, occasionally a clearer 

 pale green. They are rather sparingly flecked, spotted and 

 blotched with minute markings of different shades of brown, 

 gray and pale lavender, usually heaviest about the larger end 

 of the egg. In others they are more evenly distributed over 

 the entire egg, but never thick enough to hide the ground 

 colour. In some the lower half of the egg is almost 

 unspotted. The shells of these eggs are close grained, 

 smooth, rather thin considering their size, and slightly 

 glossy." 



The Dominion Museum at Ottawa contains eight speci- 

 mens from British Columbia, all by Mr. Spreadborough. 

 There are no eggs in the collection! 



497. Yellow-headed Blackbied — Xanthocephalus xantho- 

 cephalus (Bonap.). 



Major Bendire states, in his frequently-referred-to " Life 

 Histories of North American Birds," that " Mr. E. MacFar- 

 lane forwarded a nest and set of eggs from Cumberland 

 House, Saskatchewan, and a skin from the Hudson's Bay 



