191-1] The Ottawa Naturalist. 59 



He then spoke of the birds which had been observed, which 

 were these: A sharp-shinned hawk, a northern flicker, a herring 

 gull, numerous examples of the American crow, several American 

 robins, and presumabh' a pair of song-sparrows, the observation 

 of which was not favourable enough for definite determination. 

 Judging from the size of the sharp-shinned hawk, Dr. Williams 

 considered it to be a female, and that it evidently was hunting 

 for small birds. It flew past the party several times and, accord- 

 ing to him, its speckled brown breast, short wings and com- 

 paratively long tail were sufficiently well noted to identify the 

 species. He remarked also on the perching habits of the flicker 

 (an unusual thing among woodpeckers), and the example seen 

 alighted on a dead branch near the top of a tree and afforded 

 an opportunity to several members of the Club to observe it 

 carefully through field-glasses. Other names applied to the 

 northern flicker, given by Dr. Williams, are : The golden-winged 

 woodpecker, the high-holder and the yellow-hammer; and besides 

 the birds, he also spoke about the geological features of the park. 



Mr. Carter spoke about certain of the trees in the park, viz. : 

 White pine, hemlock spruce, balsam fir and white cedar. He 

 described the leaves of the trees, remarking that those of 

 the white pine are long and needle-shaped, five in number, and 

 spring from a common centre; those of the white spruce are 

 short, stiff, needle-like, four-sided, pointing in all directions; 

 while the leaves of hemlock spruce are flat, lighter in colour 

 beneath, and pointing in two directions only. The leaves of 

 this latter are quite soft and are often used by campers and 

 hunters to make camp beds. Unlike the white pine and the 

 white spruce, the cones of the hemlock spruce are persistent. 

 The leaves of the white cedar are in four rows on the tw^o-edged 

 bracklets and so closely packed and overlapping each other as 

 to resemble shingling. The cones are persistent, with the scales 

 pointless and seeds broadly winged all round. 



Mr. Sladen, followed by Mr. Gibson, spoke of the insects 

 observed during the afternoon, the former chiefly of a specimen 

 of solitary bee, and the latter of two species of butterflies, the 

 Mourning Cloak and the Large Tortoise-shell, both of which 

 hibernate beneath logs, flat stones, or other objects which afford 

 shelter during the winter months. Specimens of the Hedgehog 

 Caterpillar were collected and the life habits of this arctian, or 

 woolly-bear, described. Interest was also shown in the young 

 tent caterpillars, which were about to hatch from the egg- 

 clusters on the trees. 



A. H. 



