32 



ORmTHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 13-No. 2 



Albino Winter Wrens. 



HY C. S. BlilMLEV. 



Oil Nov. 11, while out collecting, my lirother 

 killed a \Viijti'i' Wren which had tho whole jilu- 

 iiiajfe. white oi- whitish. Next day, while col- 

 lectinj; within a tew yards of the same place, he 

 took another Wren w ith wliite at the base of 

 the wing quills. The query naturally suggests 

 itself as to whetlier they did not belong to the 

 same brood, and this is the more probable, as 

 in the second one there was precisely the same 

 amount of white on each wing. I append de- 

 scriptions as of some interest: Winter Wien, 

 female, whole plumage more or less wlnte or 

 whitisli, under parts unmarked, markings 

 showing faintly on wing and tail, upper parts 

 with a wash of brownish, top of head darkest; 

 taken Nov. 15, (L. 3 7-8, W. 1 3^, J. 1 3-16, E. 

 .5 .T-8.) Winter Wren, male, partial albino, the 

 basal three-fourths of the primaries aud second- 

 aries pure white, a few white spots on wing 

 coverts, the white markings on wing exactly 

 similar; taken Nov. l.j. (L. 4 3-l(i, W. 1 l.Vlfi, 

 T. 1 .'i-U;, E. () 1-8). 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Do Birds Change Their Habits. 



HV IIAl:Hy U. TAVI.IIU. ALA.MKD.V. CAI,. 



Editok O. a 0. : 



Dear Sir:— Early in the moiith of December, 

 when the sunsets were still beautiful and tarrj-- 

 ing winter had only begun to auuouuce his ar- 

 rival. I strolled one sunny afternoon to the bay 

 shore to see which of the waders were exhibit- 

 ing their inanteuvres to the children that play 

 on the sands, and how the ducks, lately come 

 from the North, were managing to elude the 

 merciless guns of the hunters. 



T found the tide quite high, and my web- 

 footed friends far out in the stream, while the 

 only ;/i;iJ!(Uores visible were a few small flocks 

 of Least Sandpipers {Trinya miHutiUaJ, of 

 whom I venture not to inquire as to the where- 

 abouts of their numerous relatives of the water 

 bird tiibe, probably at that time oil' in the 

 marshes searching industriously for food. 



While noting the absence of shore birds, J 

 saw a bird, not much larger than the little Sand- 

 piper, trotting along by the waves and picking 

 up its dinner like a veritable snipe. Soon I saw 



others similarly employed, and further on, a 

 large flock gaily deporting themselves on the 

 beach. The birds were American Titlarks, 

 which are very common here in the winter. 



We have several marsh sparrows that make 

 their habitual abode within the province of the 

 water birds, but the sight of the Titlark, which 

 we have become accustomed to think of only in 

 connection with birds of the field, associating 

 in an entirely reckless manner with common 

 sandpipers close by the fishy sea, seemed to me 

 strikingly singular. 



While walking a long the shore of Monterey 

 Bay, I have seen the common Blackbird (Scol- 

 ecophi/f/iis cy/niocepliiihis), fly from rock to rock, 

 regardless of the near proximity of the waves, 

 while near by on the beach, the familiar Black 

 Pewee, which oologists naturally associate with 

 roadway bridges and barn yards, was flitting 

 about from sand to rock and back again, and 

 occasionally feeding on pieces of tender kelp. 



'I'he fact that birds do, and have changed 

 their habits, very materially in some instances, 

 is well known to science. Who can say what 

 will be the habits of the birds of the future? 

 How many centuries must elapse before the 

 evolution of one of the Pusseres into a member 

 of the order GniUittori's, or vice versa? There is 

 room for no end of speculation here. W^e have 

 several species of duck which deposit their 

 eggs in holes in trees, and well authenticated 

 stories are current of ambitious gulls nesting 

 after the manner of hawks, far above the 

 ground. 



There may have been a time when the Wood 

 Duck {Alx spoitsa), built its nest with its con- 

 geners among the grass and reeds of the 

 swamp, but for some strange reason, away back 

 before the discovery of America, its ancestors 

 began to ape the fashion of the woodpeckers, 

 and so far revolutionized the old idea of the 

 species, that ever since they have laid their 

 eggs in holes in trees. Just when their habits 

 of domestic life were changed we know not, 

 but certainly the birds of to-day are not the 

 same as their species of a century ago. The 

 world is every day learning something new. 

 Why not the birds also? 



May not the ornithological crack shots of the 

 United Kingdom of America, in the year 2100, 

 write to the daily papers on bird lore, accounts 

 of their exploits in shooting aquatic humming 

 birds with electric rifles? 



We have received from Mr. M. Chamberlain, 

 St. John, N. B., his new Catalogue of Canadian 

 Birds, which will be noticed in our next issue. 



