130 The Ottawa Naturalist. [September 



NOTES ON SOME CANADIAN BIRDS. 



By Wm. H. Moore, Scotch Lake, N.B. 



Turkey Vulture {Cathartes aura). 



Accidental. One was taken in Victoria Co., and is now in 

 the Crown Land Department at Fredericton. One other was 

 observed the same spring, but, no dates being given, it may have 

 been the same one. 



Marsh Harrier [Circus hudsonius). 



Of common occurrence about large tracts of marsh where the 

 birds breed. They occasionally take poultry for food. 



Sharp-shinned Hawk [Accipiter velox). 



A rather uncommon summer resident. The birds arrive from 

 the south about the last of April and stay until September. They 

 are a great terror to young Blue Jays upon which they feed. 

 Have never known them to molest poultry. 



American Goshawk {Accipiter atricapillus). 



A permanent resident The boldest dashing brigand of our 

 land birds, darting swiftly and straight on his prey ; be it even a 

 hen near the farmer, he has been known to rush in and try to carry 

 it away, and instances are known where the birds have pursued 

 their prey into barns and been theinselves caught. A day or two 

 ago I had an experience with one of this species. Having heard 

 an unknown avian voice and taking a gun, I was not long in 

 locating the Goshawk, for such it proved to be. His call was a 

 series of fierce kacks repeated about ten times at intervals of from 

 two to thirty minutes. He would take short flights after Arctic 

 Woodpeckers, but was unable to obtain one ; then he would 

 alight on a high tree and kack forth his rage. I would call in 

 imitation of the Barred Owl, to which he paid some attention and 

 twice came within range but was hidden by thick limbs. Then he 

 flew to an open knoll of hard wood, and seated on a horizontal 

 beech limb he sauced me in hawk language, while I returned it in 

 many fierce and modulated words of Owl dialect. Being unable 



