42 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [March 



more especially in the immature plumage, in which state some 

 specimens so closely resemble A. lagopus that it is hard to 

 distinguish between the species. I had an individual of the 

 former species — A. Sancti-Johannis — which agi-eed so well with 

 descriptions of A. lagopus that I named it as such in my note- 

 book. I kept this specimen aUve for upwards of two months, and 

 fed it almost entirely on trout (Sahno fonfinalis), to which it 

 seemed particularly partial, but invariably refused smelts 

 (Osmerus viridescens), either dead or alive, and fresh from the 

 water. I never tried any other specimens of fish, and cannot 

 account for the bird's dislike to the smelt; it may have been the 

 peculiar cucumber-smell — certainly not the taste — which this 

 delicious little fish possesses. I do not think A. Sancti-Johannis 

 a "fisher" by nature; at least, I never saw it in the act of 

 fishing. Unfortunately I did not preserve the skin of this bird 

 (the feathers got rather shabby during confinement) ; had I done 

 so, I think it would have puzzled more than one good ornitholo- 

 gist to separate it from skins of the European A. lagopus, inas- 

 much as the under surface of the body was no darker than 

 ordinary specimens of A. lagopus, although I never examined any 

 afterwards but what were, as a rule, much darker. My bird was 

 a female and measured twenty- three inches, wing sixteen and 

 three-quarter inches, and, from the appearance of the ovary, 

 would have laid the following year (1867). The black hawk — 

 or, rather it should be buzzard— is a summer migrant to 

 Newfoundland, but, as a rule, remains later in the fall than most 

 of the Falconidae. 



American Hen Harrier (Circus Hudsonius, Linn.) — Although 

 one of the most abundant hawks in the Atlantic States of America, 

 and said by my old friend Downs to be equally common in Nova 

 Scotia, I did not, strange to say, obtain a single example in 

 Newfoundland, although I found some of the settlers knew the 

 bird by its white rump, and distinguished it by the name of" hen 

 hawk." I am almost certain of having seen it on the wing myself 

 at Cow Head. Without specimens, it is impossible for me to say in 

 what peculiarities of plumage (if ariy), &c., this bird diff"ers from 

 the European C. cyaneus. 



Bald or Whiteheaded Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Linn.) 



This handsome bird is called the " grepe" in Newfoundland. 



It is tolerably common, but as the settlers increase, this noble bird 

 gradually, but surely, decreases. Twenty years ago, or even less, 



