402 THEOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



three of the nests, and they are beautifully and compactly 

 made, externally of fine roots and grass, and the inside 

 felted with down and feathers. In course of our five seasons' 

 residence at Fort Anderson, where this species was common, 

 we received and exported to Washington about eighty nests 

 of both (Nos. 527 and 528), while we found them more 

 abundant in 1864 than during any other summer. 



There are eleven specimens and but one set of four eggs, 

 taken at Great Whale Kiver, Hudson Bay, May, 1899, by 

 Mr. A. P, Low, in the Dominion Museum at Ottawa ! 



533. Siskin- — Spinus pinus (Linn.). 



At Fort St. James, Stuart's Lake, B.C., on 22nd June, 

 1889,. a nest holding three perfectly fresh eggs was found 

 on a vrillow bush. The mother was shot, and a part thereof 

 together with the eggs were forwarded to Washington, where 

 the specimens were identified as belonging to this species. 



Mr. Raine states that he has several nests with sets of 

 eggs that were taken at Hamilton Inlet, Labrador, during the 

 summers of 1895 to 1898. One of these nests is a pretty 

 specimen of bird architecture, and made externally of fine 

 twigs and roots held together by moss, with the inside lined 

 with feathers. It was found June I7th, 1898, in a spruce 

 tree, ten feet from the ground, and contained five greenish- 

 white eggs spotted with brown. 



The Museum at Ottawa possesses eleven specimens and 

 four sets of eggs of this species, all taken in Eastern Canada 

 in 1S94. 



534. SwowFLAKE — Passerina nivalis (Linn.). 



The only authenticated nest and eggs (No. 10,433) in 

 the Smithsonian Institution at Washington as late as 1874 

 was that discovered by us in a small hole large enough to 

 admit of the female, and it was placed at a distance of nearly 

 two feet from the entrance in a sandbank along the shores 

 of Franklin Bay. " The nest is deeply saucer-shaped, and 



