52 The Ottawa Naturalist. 



TOWN BIRDS. 



By W. A. D. Lees. 



{Read before the Ottawa Field Naturalist's Club, 14th March, iSgj.) 



After a year or two with little opportunity to be in the woods or on 

 the waters where birds are most commonly found, one his not much to 

 report of their doings, and hence I am constrained to-night to confine 

 my remarks to "Town Birds." Everyone of us may see something of 

 these as he goes about the city on his daily business, and to one who 

 has not given the subject much attention it is astonishing what a num- 

 ber of species are found even in the busiest streets. 



For the student of birds, as well as for those who have only a very 

 casual acquaintance with them, there is always something new in store, even 

 among the town birds. Seven years ago yesterday, near the corner of 

 Maria and Metcalfe streets when I was only beginning, as they say with 

 children, to " take notice " of birds, I came upon a flock of Purple 

 Finches (I think the other name of Red Linnet, is a better one) and 

 was thrilled by the brilliant colour of their plumage, which to my un- 

 practised eye seemed as if stained by the rowan berries upon which they 

 were feeding. Less than a month ago, at the same street corner, I saw 

 my first flock of those erratic winter visitants the Bohemian Waxwings, 

 and I do not think that either the lapse of years, or the number of birds 

 I have come to know since those first red linnets, in any degree les- 

 sened the thrill of pleasure with which I welcomed another new ac- 

 quaintance to the list of my bird friends. 



The rowan trees along the streets and in public and private grounds, 

 when in fruit, give us many opportunities of seeing birds which, like 

 these Waxwings, visit us from the far north. Most of you will remem- 

 ber how, some ten years ago, the Pine Grosbeaks came down in such 

 numbers, and were so apparently indifferent to the presence of man, 

 that they might almost be taken by hand as they fed upon the berries 

 dropped by their hungry comrades in the trees, upon the snow be- 

 neath. 



Almost every neglected vacant lot with its crop of weed seeds 

 attracts in due time its roving flock of Redpolls, or their near relatives 

 the Goldfinches, for these latter often spend the winter with us, escap- 







