218 



The Ottawa Naturalist. 



[February 



their usual food supply, i. t\ } small mammals and birds, have 

 in those seasons been swept off the face oi' the earth or at least of 

 their habitat so, what is the reason for their wandering- ? No 

 one seems to know. Ernest Thompson Seton in one of his books 

 says that the little chickadees on certain days in the year get 

 "crazy " spells, during which they act very queer, as though they 

 had lost their "birdsense." And the same has been observed o* 

 other birds, e. g:, the capercailzie and the blackcock in Germany, 

 etc. Perhaps some ot this queer, eccentric feeling on the part of 

 these birds is responsible for some of their wanderings too ! 



Neither does the appearance of some of these birds at Ottawa 

 this winter make the matter any clearer. A hawk owl (Surnia 

 ulula caparocK) which breeds in Newfoundland, Labrador and the 

 Hudson Bay country, was shot here on Oct. 9 last, and another 

 seen at that time. Mr. Henry the taxidermist had two more. 

 Usually they come later, if at all. At that time it was very mild 

 here. 



A very unusual migration of the American goshawk (Accipiter 



atricapillus) took place last October and beginning of November. 



While a few birds are seen here most winters, they are nearly 



always in the immature plumage, and rather rare at that, but at 

 this time a regular migration of them took place, mostly composed 

 of adult birds in the finest plumage. That is certainly remarkable. 

 On Oct. 18 a fine large female was shot by a farmer near East 

 Templeton in the act of carrying away a good-sized plymouth rock 

 rooster. On Nov. 3, a boy shot a nice male near the rifle range, 

 which had just put himself on the ou.side of a ruffed grouse ( par- 

 tridge.) Mr. E. G. White noticed a pair together near Pembroke, 

 one also in the act of devouring- a grouse. The taxidermist got 

 several more from this vicinity, and all save one in the finest blue 

 plumage. At Kingston this flight was still more noticeable. Mr. 

 E. Beaupre of that city writes me, that he never saw so many 

 goshawks together as this year, /. e., ia.ll of 1906. There were 

 regular flights of them passing over the city. He saw them al- 

 most every day in October, but during the first week in November 

 they were most abundant. He saw seven flying at one time. One 

 he approached quite closely while tearing up a hairy woodpecker. 



