Letter's, Announcements, 6;c. 209 



wrong to suppose that game-birds of any kind constitute 

 its ordinary food, whatever ignorant game-preservers may 

 say. Would it not, help to intensify the hatred vvitli 

 which such people regard every " hawk,^^ and would it 

 not " sanction and propagate a grave error,'^ if a group of 

 Kestrels were to be publicly exhibited in our Museum, 

 showing the old birds feeding their nestlings with young 

 Pheasants ? It would be as misleading to say that English 

 children (especially those of Norfolk) feed on blackberries, 

 and to quote the ballad of ''The Babes in the Wood^^ in 

 proof thereof. — U.S.] 



Milton, Co. Halton, 



Ontario, Canada, 

 February 5th, 1886. 



Sirs, — The weather here is now severe, 18° below zero this 

 morning, with about a foot of snow over the country, but 

 not a R-edpole has come as yet. 



I am looking out for the long-expected Linota hornemanni. 

 It seems now to be rather a rare straggler here. • But even 

 the common L. Unaria has not put in an appearance this 

 year. Some years they are plentiful, and during others not 

 one is to be seen. It is very strange. A few "Meadow- 

 Larks'' {Sturnella) have been trying to pass the winter here 

 (the snow did not lie till late in January), but at last they 

 have disappeared, either frozen to death or gone south. It 

 was rather curious to see these summer-birds feeding on 

 horse- dung on the sleigh-tracks. One kept about our 

 stables for a time, generally feeding on the pile of horse- 

 dung outside the door; there it was joined by another, but 

 they have gone at last. Not in a condition to fly far, they 

 must have died. A few Snow-Buntings now and then, 

 generally feeding on the sleigh-tracks, are the only birds to 

 be seen now, except in the woods, where there are a few 

 Woodpeckers and Titmice and Nuthatches. Canada in 

 winter is a most dreary country so far as ornithology is 

 concerned. 



There is no doubt whatever, I think, of the excellency of 



SER. V. VOL. IV. Q 



