30 THE EEPORT OF THE Xo. 36 



Another bird, the plumage of which befits its customary haunts, is the Ruffed 

 Grouse {Bonasa umbeUus togata (Linn.) Eidgw.). The females of this species 

 when brooding on their nests are no doubt often saved from molestation by their 

 colouring and the death-like stillness that they keep when foes are near. 



The Eutfed Grouse (in the vernacular — Partridge) is not a familiar object in 

 our city streets; but some years ago, when my home was in Hull, P.Q., I, one day, 

 received a great surprise : 1 looked from an upper window and saw, amidst the 

 potted plants on the roof of the balcony to my front door, standing in alert atti- 

 tude, with outstretched neck, a Grouse. 



So perfect was the bird in form and plumage that I could not think it had 

 passed through the hands of a taxidermist; so motionless was it that I was doubt- 

 ful whether it was really alive. My attention was called off for a few moments, 

 and the bird seized the opportunity to fly away. How can I account for its 

 presence ? In this way : 



Behind my house ran the creek which surrounds the City of Hull, and beyond 

 it were the beautiful grounds of Mrs. Ellery Lord and Front Street. Then came 

 the meadows (including the well-known "''' Beaver Meadow ") and strips of wood- 

 land. Surveyors and axe-men had just commenced to convert the Beaver Meadow 

 into town lots. Their operations probably had disturbed the grouse, and a suc- 

 cession of alarms had kept it on the wing till it whirled round the street corner 

 near my house and took refuge in the greenery on the balcony. This, of course, 

 is supposition. 



One of our most welcome summer visitors is the robin. When friends meet, a 

 frequent greeting in the end of April or beginning of May, is " Good morning ! 

 Did you hear the Eobin ?" What accounts for the popularity of the bird ? ( 1 ) Its 

 hearty morning call is a pleasant sound. (3) It is a trim, handsome bird, that 

 adorns our city grass plants. (3) It is a sociable bird and loves to build, its nest 

 on or near our dwellings. (4) It is a cleanly bird and makes no litter in build- 

 ing, and keeps its nest and its surroundings unsullied. Its confidence in man wins 

 man's protection. 



A friend in Hull has under the veranda of liis house a preserved head of a 

 Virginia Deer. Between the horns of this, in the year 1909, a pair of robins built 

 their nest and reared their brood. The same pair (it is thought) returned to it 

 the next season and were again successful and raised their young. 



It was interesting to watch the approach of a parent bird to the nest. It 

 would alight on a branch of a cedar tree that grew at the end of the veranda and 

 look around. If only members of the household were near it would come on at 

 once. If a stranger were present it would pause, as if to judge of his disposition, 

 before making its approach. 



Of quadrupeds, perhaps the most remarkable I have seen in a Canadian city 

 is the Black Eat {Mu.s ratfus). The specimen I found was a dead one. I had 

 occasion one day to go to the Louise Embankment, Quebec City, and while walking 

 along one of its wharves I found the body of the little beast I speak of (I am sorry 

 that I did not have it preserved). The creature had probably landed from a vessel 

 from Europe, and been set upon and killed by the Brown Rats with which the 

 Embankment abounds. 



The Black Rat, in olden times, was the common rat of England, and it was 

 plentiful enough. Its enemy, the Brown or Norway Rat (Miis decumanus) found 

 its way to that country about the period of the English revolution, and the Jacobites 

 called it the Hanover rat, very much in the same spirit that Cecidomyia destructor 



