164 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 



-No. 



circumspect manner that a young kitten 

 will go tlirough the same operation. 

 Everything seemed to be satisfactory to 

 them. I had no dog then and have never 

 fallen so low as to keep a cat, and they 

 were in undisputed possession. In the 

 morning they had gone back to their own 

 premises, but all summer long we con- 

 tinued our friendship. I called on them 

 every day and they returned the visit every 

 night. In the fall, when I began to have 

 a fire, they showed a keen enjoyment of 

 the heat and gamboled uproariously before 

 the blaze, until a singed paw or tail was 

 the result of an incautious movement. 

 I have never seen anything in the way of 

 animal motions so bewitchingly beautiful 

 as their play. Not only was every move- 

 ment and pose the acme of grace and 

 beauty, but the whole motif was caressing 

 and kind. One night they did not come as 

 usual. I sat at the door and whistled a 

 long time, and at last went clear down to 

 the hollow tree in their corner, but it was 

 empty. I haven't seen them since. It's 

 always so with pets. Something is sure 

 to happen and we lose them. The house 

 seemed lonesome and I went into camp 

 for a long time. Even to-day it gives me 

 a bad sort of feeling to write about them. 

 I guess I need a smoke. 



Robert Canro/i. 



Macgillivray's Warbler. 



This species ( GeotJilypis macgilli- 

 vrayi) , known also as Tolmie's Warbler, 

 came under my notice during my rambles 

 in the vicinity of Port Kells, and out along 

 the way to Langley prairie, but at the 

 time I failed to identify it. But I well re- 

 member that there were numbers of differ- 

 ent species of the Warbler family giving 

 vent to their varied and pleasing melodies, 

 among the lower brush wood, at medium 

 elevations and high up among the taller 

 timber, which for the time were new and 



strange to me, but as I carried no death- 

 dealing weapon into the wilds of this sun- 

 set land, its feathered residents were little 

 disturbed by my advent among them. I 

 have since entertained no doubt that 

 among the members of the avi-faunian race 

 whose melody fell upon my ear, in that 

 wild, strange land, and of whose forms - 

 and plumage I caught occasional glimpses, 

 as they flitted to and fro among the foliage 

 and blossoms of its peculiar woods, were 

 many specimens of the Macgillivray's 

 Warbler. Mr. Fannin, in his L/st of 

 British Columbia Birds^ records this 

 species " as a common summer resident 

 through the greater part of the province, 

 breeds on Vancouver Island, a bright, 

 active little bird, continually on the move, 

 darting here and there among the low 

 shrubbery." Mr. Townsand, who in 1S39 

 published a work on the birds of the Paci- 

 fic coast, and by whom several species of 

 the birds resident in that region have been 

 named, first describes this species under 

 the name of Tolmie's Warbler, in honor 

 of Dr. Tolmie, then of Fort Vancouver. 

 Mr. Ross, in his " Birds of Canada," de- 

 scribes this bird as being "five inches 

 long, the wings less than two and a half 

 inches, the head and neck, ash, a narrow 

 frontlet and space around the eye, black ; 

 the feathers of the forward underparts 

 really black but appearing gray from the 

 ashy tips of the feathers ; the rest of the 

 upper parts dark olive green, and of the 

 lower, yellow." Speaking of the birds of 

 Colorado, Mr. Morrison says regarding 

 this species, " One of our most common 

 Warblers. Although very shy when the 

 nest is approached, the female will glide 

 off, and flying close to the ground is soon 

 lost from sight, and also from the nest as 

 long as the safety of the eggs will allow ; 

 when without seeing the bird you will 

 very likely find her on the nest, where she 

 has stolen perhaps the only moment your 

 eyes were taken from her. Nests in juni- 



