212 The Ottawa Naturalist. 



Journal of Science, Vol. I, pp. 483 and 498 ; (1) plates V-VIII; (2) 

 plate X, New Haven, Nov. and Dec. 1895. 



These two admirable papers contain a large amount of most 

 valuable and timely information on a group of " Extinct Monsters," the 

 affinities of which are fast becoming better known as more perfect and 

 ample material is forthcoming in the remarkable discoveries of recent 

 years. 



Ornithology blue-bird dickcissel I see by a recent num- 

 ber of the Ottawa Naturalist that the Blue-bird, ( Sialia sia/is) is 

 no commoner in Ottawa this year than ir is in Western Ontario. Very 

 early in the season murmurs of a shortage began to arise, and it was 

 the 23rd of May before I saw o le at all, though one pair was known to 

 be nesting near town before then, and four were all I saw during the sum- 

 mer. Observers near Lake St. Clair write that there were a few in that 

 region, and the reports of others c >incide with my own observations in 

 noting quite a number in the fall migration in October. 



Recent reports in " Forest and Stream " state that the Blue-birds 

 died in Georgia by hundreds in the severe fronts of last winter, and an 

 editorial footnote to a recent letter about the Blue-bird, said that a 

 friend in South Florida sent the information that, contrary to the 

 customary order of things, the blue-birds remained there during the 

 year, nesting in great numbers. 



Coupling this with the observation of occasional flocks from the 

 North this fall, one is led to hope that they will not be so rare next 

 year as they were this summer. 



An interesting problem arises about which one can do little but 

 theorize. In a given area, say a square mile, let us grant that there 

 were in 1890 one hundred pairs of Blue-birds. These laid 4, 5, & 6 

 eggs per pair, and probably each pair brought an average of at least 

 three young to maturity In June then, there were 500 Blue-birds where 

 in April there were but 200. In the following year there were but 100 

 pair again, for Blue-birds have not been growing in abundance nor have 

 they been materially extending their range. Therefore, there had been 

 a mortality, approximately of about 60% of all the birds between June 



