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Ontario Notes 



Located on the Canadian side of the 

 Detroit River, we ha\'e maintained a feeding- 

 station for birds for the past three winters. 

 The first and second seasons we had only the 

 Black-capped Chickadee, Downy Wood- 

 pecker, and the White-breasted Nuthatch. 

 The winter of 1919-20 we had, in addition, 

 Juncos, the Cardinal Grosbeak, Blue Jays, 

 and five American Crossbills, two males and 

 three females. The Crossbills showed practi- 

 cally no fear, and came intermittently for a 

 month, gorging themselves on sunflower seeds. 



age. The Warblers among them were utterly 

 fearless, alighting on our hats, shoulders, and 

 hands, pecking at the stone of my ring and 

 accepting flies from our hands. 



Among the birds was a bat (they seem to 

 migrate), and a Sparrow Hawk flying with 

 the ship made frantic efTorts to catch the 

 birds on the deck. As we approached within 

 several miles of land, they all left hurriedly. 



Last summer from one to three Sparrows 

 would trail the numerous Robins on our lawn. 

 Nearly every worm secured by a Robin 

 would be instantly seized by the Sparrows 



RED CROSSBILL 



They remained feeding on our shelves for 

 longer periods than any other birds we have 

 ever observed, frequently over an hour at a 

 time. We succeeded in taking a number of 

 photographs of them, one of which is pre- 

 sented herewith. 



In September, several years ago, on board 

 the ore steamer /. A . Farrell, in Lake Supe- 

 rior, over 30 miles from any land, we awoke 

 to find the decks of the vessel alive with birds, 

 several hundred of them. We identified thir- 

 teen species, not including any doubtful 

 young birds which were in all stages of plum- 



(30 



and made ofT with while the Robin would 

 patiently hunt another one. This was while 

 the Robins were feeding their young, who 

 must have suffered in consequence. 



The Sparrows follow the Cardinal to our 

 feeding shelves, seeming to know they are 

 immune while he is there. As he cracks grain, 

 corn or sunflower seed, they seize upon every 

 piece he drops and sometimes seize pieces 

 from his mouth, which he does not resent. 



We have tried, unsuccessfully, to decimate 

 the Sparrows. — Mary D. Perley, Ojibway, 

 Ontario. 



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