176 The Ottawa Naturalist. [December 



20th the last kino^fishers, rusty blackbirds, white-throated spar- 

 rows, song sparrows, vesper sparrows and bluebirds were seen. 

 On the same date the tree sparrow appeared. Oct. 28th saw the 

 last of the ruby-crowned ringlet and the first for this fall of the 

 American scaup duck. On the same date two flocks of fox spar- 

 rows were noted. On Oct. 31st the black duck and redhead were 

 seen for the last rime, the red-breasted merganser and bufilehead 

 appeared, a pair of hooded mergansers, and three Canadian jays 

 were noted. On Nov. ist a flock of pine siskins were noted and 

 the last American robin seen. On Nov. 3rd the last was seen of 

 the mourning dove, a mallard and two American mergansers were 

 noted, and the northern shrike appeared. Nov. 6th saw the last 

 of the marsh hawks and the first of the redpolls. 



A SERIOUS MISUNDERSTANDING BETWEEN MY 

 SQUIRREL AND ME. 



By M. E. 



My home has been aptly described as "a large bay-window, a 

 wi le verandah, and an over-hanging willow-tree, with a small house 

 in the rear." I live in the small house in the rear ; my squirrels 

 live everywhere else. My f imily is even smaller than the house ; 

 the squirrels I have never been able to count ; but a small neigh- 

 bor, who visits in their family, tells me that he counted twelve, at 

 one time, and saw two more directly after. T can boast of feeding 

 four, under the willow-tree, one afternoon last summer. As a 

 rule, however, there are only two ; a small, shy one, and a great, 

 fat, tame one They run up the willow-tree and out on a bough 

 that overhangs the verandah roof and jump on my window ledge, 

 hunting for nuts, which they seldom fail to find — now in one 

 corner, now in another — where every day I hide them. 



One day, when the window was left open, one of them came 

 in, and finding the bisket of. nuts on top of the secretary, upset 

 it all over the floor. Such a noise ! Such a panic ! No one will 

 ever know who beat in that race, for I flew up and the squirrel 

 flew out, and we both agreed to say nothing about it. He has 

 charming manners when he chooses : but, like some other 



