398 THEOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASEST 



511b. Beonzed Geackle — Quiscalus quiscula ceneus 

 Eidgway. 



" In a typewritten list of birds and eggs received from Mr. 

 E. MacFarlane in 1890 there appears one set of five eggs 

 of this species, collected at, and forwarded from, Cumber- 

 land House. As no parent came to hand, I failed to identify 

 them." Bendire, however, states that eggs were taken by 

 Mr. J. Lockhart at Port Eesolution, Great Slave Lake, on 

 May 17th, 1863. According to Mr. Eoss they were rare at 

 Fort Simpson. 



Bendire remarks that " where coniferous trees are obtain- 

 able, preference seems to be given to them; but willows are 

 also used for building, while there is not much difference in 

 their nests compared with those of the purple and Florida 

 grackles, which vary in composition according to locality, and 

 their nesting habits and eggs are also similar. The number 

 of eggs to a set varies from four to six, rarely seven ; sets of 

 five are most often found, and six are not unusual." 



The Dominion Museum at Ottawa holds six birdskins 

 and four sets of eggs, taken in several sections of eastern and 

 western Canada. 



515. Pij^E Geosbeak — Pinicola enucleator leucura Miiller. 



In the spring of 1861 an Indian discovered a nest of this 

 species some sixty miles south of Fort Anderson. It was 

 built in a spruce tree, but unfortimately while descending 

 therewith he fell and destroyed both nest and four eggs, and 

 although we frequently observed some birds in the vicinity 

 of the post and elsewhere, we never succeeded in finding 

 another nest, despite many efforts. 



Major Bendire's second volume of his valuable and inter- 

 esting " Life Histories of ISTorth American Birds " comes to 

 an end with the boat-tailed grackle, Quiscalus major, now 

 known as ISTo. 513, Megasquiscalus major Vieillot, of the re- 

 vised A. 0. U. Check List, and it will therefore be impossible , 



