May, 1920] 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



99 



Another film which shows the wonderful rc^sults 

 obtained by Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Middleton in the 

 winter feeding of birds at London, Ontario, is com- 

 pleted and others are in contemplation. 



There are a multitude of subjects to choose from 

 in planning such pictures, but it is quite possible that 

 the reader of this article knows of good material 

 for Canadian bird pictures which has not been 

 called to the attention of the Branch. If this 

 should be the case valuable bird protection work 

 can be done by acquainting the Dominion Parks 

 Branch of any discoveries made of nesting grounds, 

 feeding stations and the like, so that motion pictures 

 may be taken where possible. HoYES Lloyd. 



HuDSONIAN CHICADEE. Several Hudsonian 

 Chickadees spent last winter with us here in Red 

 Deer, feeding with the common Black-capped ones 

 and making themselves very much at home. I have 

 fed the birds every winter for many years and while 

 numbers of our common Chicadees, Hairy and 

 Downy Woodpeckers and latterly Blue-jays, fed 

 daily on the feed provided for them. This is 

 the first time the little Brownies have put in an ap- 

 pearance at our feeding place. A friend reported 

 having seen one near here several years ago. Win- 

 ter caught us early in October, and my attention 

 was drawn to a new bird note, which on investiga- 

 tion, proved to be the Hudsonian Chicadee, and in 

 a very short time they were feeding with the other 

 birds within a few feet of a window where I ob- 

 served them at close range. All the birds were 

 tame, the Chicadees absurdly so and would settle 

 on my hands when putting out food for them. It 

 was rather amusing to watch the Hudsonians 

 "bossing" the Black-caps, the latter having to give 

 way to the strangers at all times. During the very 

 cold weather their only note was a drawling plain- 

 tive de-de-de, very unlike our common Black-cap's 

 clear notes; but with warmer weather and bright sun- 

 shine they sing two different songs one a lovely 

 bubbling note with a canary-like quality to it and 

 the other beyond my powers to describe. Several 

 people came to see these birds, and Mr. F. C. White- 

 hcuse. Dr. Henry George and Mr. C. H. Snell 

 have identified them. We hope they will stay and 

 nest with us. We have a lot of spruce trees here 

 where they could spend most cf their time. 



Description: Head dark brown, darker on fore- 

 head and over eyes; small white spot on cheek; 

 back grey, washed with brown ; wings dark grey ; 

 tail very dark grey; throat black; breast greyish 

 white; sides cinnamon. One bird, which I pre- 

 sume was an adult male, had the breast pure white 

 and the other colours correspondingly richer. 



(Mrs.) Elsie Cassels, Red Deer, Alta. 



The Starling in Canada. We all realize 

 what a mistake it was to introduce the English or 

 House Sparrow into America. However, even the 

 lamentable results of naturalizing this alien was not 

 a sufficiently awful example and the experiment had 

 to be tried with other species. Most such introduc- 

 tions have been failures. The European Gold 

 Finch survived in limited numbers for a while, but 

 quickly died out. The success with other species, 

 such as the Skylark was equally futile, except in 

 the case of the Starling. It has suceeded and mul- 

 tiplied near New York and adjoining coastal lo- 

 calities and like most of such successful introduc- 

 tions we wish it had been otherwise. Whilst not 

 promising to be such an arrant pest as the English 

 Sparrow, its effect has not been good and, flocking 

 to city parks, orchards and such semi-wild places, 

 has still further displaced native species with whom 

 we are in closer sympathy. It has shown all its 

 bad habits and few redeeming good ones. 



So far, in Canada, we have congratulated our- 

 selves that our climate would prevent the intrusion of 

 the Starling into our country and while we felt com- 

 miseration for our neighbors across the border we 

 took little more than an academic interest in the 

 matter. But it now looks as if our complacency 

 was to be rudely shattered. The Starling has been 

 reported from Canada. 



Mrs. R. W. Leonard, of St. Catherines, Ont., 

 writes that she saw a small flock about her place 

 last winter. Further inquiries bring forth the 

 following information from her in substantia- 

 tion. The birds were observed at a distance of 

 about twenty-five feet through field glasses and were 

 identified by means of comparison with descriptions 

 and plates in Chapman's Birds of Eastern North 

 America, Reed's Bird Guide and the National 

 Geographic Magazine. They are described as fol- 

 lows: "Their heads were dark and something like 

 a blackbird's, the wings were a very dark shade 

 of brown, speckled all over with light spots." This 

 last detail seems to be conclusive and to quiet any 

 doubts that might otherwise arise as to the identi- 

 fication. 



There have not been any published reports of 

 the birds occurrence anything like so far from the 

 place of original introduction and it is surprising that 

 they should have made this great jump in distri- 

 bution without being reported from intermediate lo- 

 calities. Any other appearance of this species 

 should be immediately reported that we may keep 

 track of its spread and perhaps initiate methods of 

 prevention. 



P. A. Taverner. 



