Shankland — On Birds on Otonabee River. 31 



proper seasons of the year. The first of these, the Horned 

 Grebe, is of about the same size as a Pied-billed Grebe, but 

 may readily be distinguished from the latter species by its 

 prominent " horns " and white tTiroat. This species is not of 

 very common occurrence along- the Otonabee, and although we 

 saw two or three birds that we supposed were Horned Grebes, 

 we were unable to positively identify them as such. They are 

 said to breed sparingly in the marshes. 



The Holboell's Grebe, a bird of larger size and more strik- 

 ing appearance than the ones already mentioned, appears reg- 

 ularly on the Otonabee River only during the spring and fall 

 migrations, as its breeding-grounds are in the primeval wil- 

 derness of the far north. During the fall season, Holboell's 

 Grebes are quite conspicuous birds, being about the size of 

 Mallard duck'^, and distinguishable from other waterfowl by 

 their white speculum, and from other grebes by their larger 

 size. They appear on the Otonabee River and Rice Lake at 

 about the same time as the Loons, the Canada Geese, and the 

 Whistling Swans. 



Tn the meantime, one of my companions, more lucky than 

 the rest of us, had succeeded in hooking what appeared to be 

 a good-^ized fish, and a moment later he was experiencing, 

 some of the delightful difficulties of attempting to play a fish 

 from a light birch bark canoe. The performance w^as intense- 

 Iv interesting, however, and he finallv had the satisfaction of 

 landing a handsome sixteen-inch black bass, although not un- 

 til it had made a desperate fight for life and freedom. Ten 

 minutes later another of my companions hooked and landed 

 a muscallonge twenty inches long. This is one of the com- 

 monest .species of fish in these waters, and individuals often 

 weigh more than one hundred pounds. During the next 

 twenty minutes, each of my three friends succeeded in catch- 

 ing at least one fish, and in half an hour after we had com- 

 menced fishing, there were five bass and two muscallonge in 

 the bottoms of the canoes. 



It was not mv lucky day. however, and I failed to even get 



