BIRDS OF XOETHERN CANADA 397 



constructed of earth, moss and grass, small dry twigs 

 and branches, lined with finer grasses and a sprinkling 

 of feathers and deer hair. The parents generally manifested 

 great uneasiness when their nests were approached, and they 

 would often fly from tree to tree in order to attract us away 

 from the spot. Incubation lasts about two weeks, and in 

 two more the young are able to leave the nest. They are 

 mouse-coloured at first, and are carefully attended to by both 

 parents, who are passionately devoted to them. Bendire 

 remarks that this collection of eggs, together with those 

 gathered by Mr. James Lockhart on the Yukon, near the 

 mouth of the Porcupine River, Alaska, are in the U. S. 

 National Museum at Washington. " The eggs of this species 

 are mostly ovate in shape. The shell is strong, finely granu- 

 lated and slightly glossy. The ground colour is a light 

 bluish green, which fades somewhat with age ; this is blotched 

 and spotted more or less profusely, and generally heaviest 

 about the larger end of the egg, with different shades of 

 chocolate and chestnut brown and lighter shades of ecru, 

 drab, and pearl gray. The peculiar scrawls so often met 

 with among the eggs of our blackbirds are rarely seen on 

 these eggs, which are readily distinguishable from those of 

 the other species." 



The Canadian Museum at Ottawa contains nine bird- 

 skins and but one set of five eggs, taken at Davidson's Lake, 

 Hants County, N.S., by "Robbie" Tufts, on 12th June, 

 1901! 



510. Beewbb's Blackbird — Euphagus cyanocephalus 

 Wagler. 



We did not observe this species or the rusty blackbird 

 in ISTew Caledonia or Cumberland districts. Mr. B. R. Ross 

 says Brewer's blackbird was not rare in his time at Fort 

 Simpson. This species is well represented in the TT. S. 

 National Museum at Washington, and also fairly so in that 

 of the Dominion collection at Ottawa. 



