i6o The Ottawa Naturalist. [October 



Two days more and we reached the C. P. R. line. We put 

 our canoes on th» train sending them east to Wahnapitae station, 

 whilst we got off at Sudbury to visit the mines. Here the 

 ubiquitous English sparrow had followed the settlers in great 

 numbers. The surrounding country, made almost as barren as 

 Gehenna by sulphur fumes from the mines, seemed all the more 

 desolate by being infested with great flocks of the common crow. 



At Wahnipitae station, where we rested for a day, my atten- 

 tion was arrested by great numbers of the barn swallow. At times 

 they seemed to fairly cover the telegraph lines tor the distance of 

 six or seven posts. Here, too, we saw the only attempt at farm- 

 ing we had met in our journey. Between two great granite ridges 

 one man had brought about forty acres of land under cultivation. 

 Yet such familiar birds as the robin and bluebird did not come 

 under our observation even here. Though personally not in a fit 

 condition for observation during this day's rest, owing to sudden 

 illness, none of the party noted any representatives of the warbler 

 or sparrow families. In the twilight, as I lay on my back with 

 my face to the sky, I saw the swallows gradually withdraw and 

 an occasional night-hawk skim through the gathering shades. 

 Now and then tha whirr of a duck passing up the river made a 

 pause in the supper preparations, but soon the stars came out 

 and camp-fire stories took the place of Nature's quiet delights. 



We had left ourselves but three days and a Sunday rest to 

 cover the sixty miles which lay between us and French River port 

 on Georgian Bay. Passing down this river with its varying 

 panorama, its sudden turns enabling us to startle deer and moose, 

 we found only monotony in the study of ornithology. Ducks, 

 more ducks, and ducks again, at every bend of the river. 

 Amongst these we identified the larger saw-bill, grey duck and 

 blue-winged teal as well as black duck in abundance. These 

 black ducks seemed to prefer a diet of snails, for each one we 

 opened had a number of snail shells in his crop. Whilst examin- 

 ing one, some twenty miles down the river, our attention was 

 drawn upward by a passing shadow. There was a bald-headed 

 eagle sailing leisurely past. About dusk on Saturday evening a 

 large bird crossed the river silently in front of us. We paddled 



