BIRDS OF NORTHERN CANADA 413 



583. Lincoln's Spareow — Melospiza lincolnii (Audiibon). 



In the neighbourhood of Fort St. James, on 27th June, 

 1889, two nests, each containing two eggs, were found — one 

 of them on a low scrub bush, the other on the ground, and 

 the parents were shot. The eggs were nearly fresh. Early 

 in June, 1891, Mr. McKay also took a nest with five eggs 

 near Pelican Narrows, where it is among the very first spring 

 bird arrivals. Common in British Columbia and at old 

 Fort Yukon, where upwards of forty years ago Mr. R. 

 Kennicott and Chief Trader Lockhart obtained some speci- 

 mens. Mr. Ross has also noted them in his Mackenzie River 

 List 



The Ottawa Museum contains twenty-four specimens, 

 and but one set of five eggs, taken at Edmonton, Alberta, 

 on 1st June, 1897, by Mr. Spreadborough ! 



584. Swamp Spaeeow — Melospiza georgiana (Latham). 



Mr. Ross gives Fort Resolution, Great Slave Lake, as its 

 most northern breeding range. I do not remember if I ever 

 met therewith anywhere. Common at York Factory, Hud- 

 son Bay, and a summer resident of Manitoba, and thence to 

 Lesser Slave Lake and the Athabasca Landing. Nests in 

 marshy tracts of country, and the nest is said to be in the 

 main composed of coarse grasses lined with some of a finer 

 quality and placed in a tussock of grass on a very low bush. 

 The usual number of eggs is from four to six, and Garneau 

 states that they are grayish-white speckled with reddish- 

 brown. Rev. C. J. Young, however, says " the eggs are 

 readily distinguished from those of the song sparrow, being 

 spotted and speckled with umber instead of brick-red." 



The Dominion Museum at Ottawa contains but six speci- 

 mens and two sets of eggs ! 



585. Fox Spaeeow^ — Passerella iliaca (Merr.). 



Although the brief field-notes made by me at Fort 

 Chipevvyan, New Caledonia and Cumberland do not, strange 



