January, 1922.] 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



15 



river is frozen over, its mouth and the bay are 

 still open. The city has built a long concrete 

 breakwater along the water-front, about 50 or 

 100 yards from shore. This forms a lagoon which 

 in milder weather is open and which is protected 

 from the open lake's waves and so is an ideal 

 resting spot for water birds. 



Many times I have seen Great Black-backed 

 and Ring-billed Gulls resting on the concrete wall 

 where they were easily seen through field-glasses. 

 On several occasions I have seen what I believe 

 to be the same flock of American Mergansers 

 feeding and sporting in the quiet lagoon. General- 

 ly there are two males and three females. On 

 January 29 a fourth female appeared. All per- 



mitted a very close approach, but the one female 

 did not follow the rest in flight. Later we saw 

 her distinctly at a distance of a few yards, for 

 she dived and came up close to us by the pier at 

 the mouth of the river. There are generally 

 several Golden-eyes here also, very tame, for 

 people are often seen crossing Humber Bridge at 

 this point. Once a small flock of Scaup Ducks 

 were here and on another occasion I identified 

 an American Scoter. I have never yet been sure 

 of the identity of large flocks of ducks which I see 

 farther out on the lake, but the Long-tail (Old- 

 Squaw) is an abundant visitant here in some 

 winters. It is probable that these flocks are 

 Long-tailed Ducks. 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS 



THE STARLING, Sturnus vulgaris, AT TOR- 

 ONTO, ONTARIO 



The following note from my diary has been 

 held, till confirmatory records of the Starling as 

 an Ontario bird appeared . The date was August 

 24, 1920. 



"While in my garden (Rusholme Road) about 

 7.30 this morning, watching for migrants, I saw 

 a flock of seven birds fly west over the garden, and 

 pass out of view, just clearing some tall elms across 

 the road. I was at the east end of the garden 

 when the birds were first seen directly above me, 

 and I was able to watch them for nearly three 

 hundred feet of their flight, and instantly decided 

 they were English Starlings; the shape of the 

 birds, their flight, and the movements of the flock 

 were characteristic; and I had no doubt, while the 

 birds were in sight, of their identity." 



J. H. Fleming. 



YOUNG WEASELS 

 At Bella Coola, British Columbia, on June 18, 

 1921, my attention was called by Master Wilfred 

 Christensen and his playmate. Master Donald 

 Morrison, to two shivering young weasels which 

 they had found under some boards filling a shallow 

 waterway across a wood road. They said a parent 

 weasel had carried off a third kitten weasel, and 

 they were keeping both parents away by flourish- 

 ing sticks. Both parents were continually rushing 

 out and retreating. After examining the kittens, 

 which had bodies about five inches long, we all 

 stepped back perhaps fifteen feet and waited 

 quietly. Soon we heard the chirping cry of one 

 parent weasel as it ran out, looked at us, dodged 

 around a stump, and looked at us again. It then 

 rushed to the young weasels, seized one, apparently 

 by the ear, but possibly by the neck or head, and 



whisked it away out of sight under the boards and 

 brush. In a few moments it returned and re- 

 moved the other slightly larger kitten weasel in 

 the same manner. The old weasel seemed smaller 

 in girth than the kitten, but this may have been 

 an illusion caused by the slenderness of the adult. 



Harlan I. Smith. 



DISEASED SHARP-TAILED GROUSE IN 

 MANITOBA. 

 During the hunting season for grouse in Mani- 

 toba October 15 to 22, 1921 thirty examples 

 of the Prairie Sharp-tailed Grouse (P. phasianellus 

 campestris Ridg.) were shot near the writer's 

 home at Aweme. On being prepared for cooking 

 two of these birds were found to be very thin and 

 a post-mortem examination revealed the fact that 

 the liver was severely affected by tuberculosis of 

 a nature apparently identical with that found 

 in domestic poultry. Whether the disease is 

 really as prevalent as these examples indicate 

 cannot, at present, be told, but in any case the 

 presence of such a disease in one of our most 

 valued game birds is a matter of considerable 

 importance as it may well prove one of the chief 

 factors in retarding the bird's increase. The 

 disease may be spread in several ways, but it 

 would probably make its greatest progress during 

 the "dancing" period in spring time, when the 

 males gather on certain small areas, or in Autumn, 

 when the birds often collect into large flocks. 



Norman Criddle. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERI- 

 CAN ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION 

 The thirty-ninth Stated Meeting of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union was held in Philadelphia, 



