AUGUST BIRDS IN CAPE BRETON. 89 



drawn near me a mob of wliite-throats, juncos, 

 both kinds of chickadees, ruby-crowned king- 

 lets, and of warblers the yellow-rumped, black- 

 throated green, Nashville, black-and-white creep- 

 ing, and the gorgeous black-and-yellow, as well 

 as robins, a purple finch, and some young flick- 

 ers. Suddenly I heard an unfamiliar bird note, 

 a harsh, loud call, which, without much consid- 

 eration, I attributed to geese, great numbers of 

 which are kept by the Cape Breton farmers. 

 After an interval of several minutes the cries 

 were repeated, and this time it occurred to me 

 that geese were not likely to be wandering in a 

 hackmatack swamp just at sunset, especially as 

 the sky foretold rain and the wind was backing 

 round into the east. So I left my thicket in 

 search of the maker of the strange sounds. A 

 path led through the larches to a clearing sur- 

 rounded by a typical Cape Breton fence, or se- 

 rial woodpile, which appeared to be built on the 

 Kentucky principle of being "horse high, pig 

 low, and bull proof," and consequently impregna- 

 ble to turkeys, geese, and sheep. The moment I 

 emerged from the trees a fine marsh hawk rose 

 from the ground and floated away out of sight. 

 While watching him, a flash of white on the fence 

 drew my eyes to the edge of the woods, and there, 

 to my delight, I saw five of the most charming 

 denizens of the great northern forests : birds in 



