Monthly Bulletin 5 



With regard especially to birds, this Board has taken steps to add to the 

 wild life reserves a sanctuary at Point Pelee, the most southerly point of 

 Canada, and one of the concentration points in the journeys north and south 

 of migratory birds, as well as an ideal area for the encouragement of wild 

 fowl. The Bonaventure Island cliffs, where thousands of sea-birds breed, 

 and extensive areas in Alberta and Saskatchewan, withheld from settle- 

 ment as not suitable for agriculture, are also being recommended as bird- 

 reserves. 



The governments of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta have estab- 

 lished an absolute close season for prairie chickens (pinnated grouse and 

 prairie sharp-tailed grouse) , owing to the extraordinary decrease in their 

 numbers, and the fact that almost complete extermination has befallen those 

 of the western States. 



BIRD LECTURES 



The annual course of bird lectures at Tremont Temple will be held 

 this year on four Saturday afternoons, February 8th and 15th, March 1st 

 and 8th. These will be illustrated by colored lantern slides and moving 

 pictures of bird and animal life and will be as entertaining and instructive 

 as in the past. Dallas Lore Sharp, Clinton G. Abbott, Norman McClintock 

 and William L. Finley are to be the lecturers. The lectures will be en- 

 tirely new in material and much matter, especially in the movies of birds 

 and animals will be of surpassing interest. The tickets will be issued dur- 

 ing January, and it is believed that the audiences will fill Tremont Temple 

 this season as in tlie past. Do not forget to reserve these dates. 



THE IPSWICH SPARROW 



Fifty years ago this month — on December 4th, to be exact — the Ipswich 

 sparrow was first taken by the well-known field naturalist Charles J. May- 

 nard, at Ipswich, whence the name. This bird was for some time supposed 

 to be a specimen of Baird's sparrow, a Western bird which, says Jonathan 

 Dwight, Jr., it resembles very little. "Since then," says Maynard, "it has 

 grown gradually more and more common until it has become a fairly 

 abundant species. Such being the facts regarding the history of this fine 

 sparrow, I do not hesitate to affirm that I am thoroughly convinced that it 

 offers a practical example of the evolution of a species almost, if not 

 quite, within our time, its ancestors being the common Savannah sparrow, 

 some form of which (and this species appears to be quite plastic) wandered 

 to Sable Island, became, through adaptation to changed environment, grad- 

 ually transformed with successive generations to the present Ipswich spar- 

 row." 



The Ipswich sparrow breeds only on Sable Island and may be seen 

 in winters along sandy stretches of the coast as far south as Georgia. 



