406 THKOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



number of eggs varied between four and six. The Professor 

 (Macoun) has not referred to those collected by us in that 

 quarter. 



There are four specimens from Ottawa, taken in October, 

 1890, and two sets of eggs taken on Toronto Island in 1894 

 and 1896, in the National Museum at Ottawa. 



542b. Western Savanna Spaeeow — Passerculus sandwich- 

 ensis alaudinus (Bonap.). 



On 12th June, 1889, a nest holding four eggs was found 

 at Eort St. James, B.C., but their contents were in such a 

 developed condition that all of them got broken in attempt- 

 ing to empty them. It was found in the shade of a clod 

 of turf in our barley field, and the mother bird was snared 

 thereon. Two weeks later another nest was discovered on 

 a low willow bush, and the contents of its four eggs were 

 somewhat similar. The parent was shot, and both skins and 

 nests were forwarded to Washington. In the early sixties 

 of the last century we found this sparrow very abundant in 

 marshy and sparsely wooded sections near Eort Anderson 

 and on the lower river of that name, seeing that upwards 

 of two hundred nests with eggs were collected in that region. 

 They were all placed on the ground, and were composed of 

 dry stems of grasses lined with finer materials of the same. 

 Some of the nests were lined with a few feathers and deer 

 hair. The number of eggs in a nest was four or five, while 

 the colour of those- of both sub-species are greenish-white, 

 heavily blotched and spotted with light brown and lilac, and 

 the size about 0.Y4 by 0.54 inches. 



The Dominion Museum at Ottawa contains forty-seven 

 specimens and four sets of eggs — the former from Saskatch- 

 ewan, Alberta, and British Columbia, and the latter from 

 the two former Provinces. 



554a. Gambel^s Spaeeow — Z onotricJiia leucophrys gam- 

 ielii (Nuttal). 

 In 1881 Mr. Dalgleish became the recipient of several 

 birds, eggs and nests of this species, which had been col- 



