lu ' Forest and Stream ' for May 1878, is a note on the " Nortliern- 

 most locality on record," of the " Cardinal Grosbeak in Nova Scotia in 

 winter." Mr, J. Matthew Jones writes — " Observing in your Natural 

 History column, headed " A cardinal Grosbeak in Central Park," stating 

 that the writer had seen one of these birds in that locahty on the 17th 

 March, and expressing his surprise at the occurrence, I may mention that 

 a pair of these birds were found in the spruce woods at Point Pleasant, 

 near this city (Halifax, N.S.), on the last day of January, 1871." 



I am indebted to the Rev. Herbert D. Astley for the following details 

 respecting the Virginian Nightingale breeding at liberty in England : — 

 " Even to those uninterested in the ways and habits of birds, the follow- 

 ing experiment must prove attractive. Experiment is hardly the word, 

 for it was by an accident that a pair of Virginian Nightingales (^Cardinalis 

 Virginianiis) made their escape from a large pheasantry, where they had 

 been for two years, and had become inured to the many atmospheric 

 changes of our climate ; not that they are ever delicate birds, for they 

 make little of a November fog or a January snowstorm. However, they 

 escaped on the 15th of May (1885), and as they kept about I did not take 

 much trouble to get them in again, but put out their tin of canary seed so 

 that they might not starve, and also as an extra inducement for them not 

 to wander far from home. The pheasantry in which they had been 

 confined is situated amongst bushes, and close by a rookery, which is all 

 paled in, and adjoins the front garden lawns and a fairly large shrubbery, 

 the home of many a bird ; rich in the growth of syringas, lilacs, box trees, 

 and many other shrubs, amongst which spring up old elms, lime and firs. 

 To this retreat, the Virginian Nightingales soon found their way, and the 

 following morning after their escape, on going through the shrubbery, I 

 saw the cock bird perched on the tip-top of a hawthorn. There he was, 

 singing as loud and as fast as the notes would come, his beautiful scarlet 

 breast looking more brilliant than usual in the full morning sun of a May 

 day, whilst the intense green of the hawthorn showed up the bird in 

 strong relief. I felt as I saw him, that it was a sight that few, if any, in 

 England were enjoying at that moment, or indeed at any other time, for 

 I have never before heard of these American cousins being allowed their 



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