BIRDS OF HUDSONS BAY. 58 
birds were occasionally seen at the posts of the Hudson’s Bay Company, all the way west to 
the valley of the McKenzie River. The white-winged crossbill (Curvirostra leneopetra, Gam.) 
was obtained on the Nelson River, at Fort George and at Hudson’s Strait. The great nor- 
thern shrike (Collurio borealis, Vieiollot), called the “ Devil’s Whiskey-jack,” is common on 
the western side of Hudson’s Bay. 
Birds of prey are rather numerous near the coast on both sides the bay. The most con- 
spicuous species collected are the great horned owl, the short-eared, snowy, swamp and 
day owls; the golden eagle, bald eagle and osprey; the red-tailed hawk, duck-hawk, marsh 
harrier and gerfalcon. The last named is known as the partridge or winter hawk, 
although it remains also during the summer and breeds in the country. 
I have shot the turkey buzzard or vulture (Cathartes aura, Linn.) on the upper Assini- 
boine, but have never heard of it near Hudson’s Bay. The locality referred to is in about 
latitude 52°. It had not before been noted north of Minnesota, while in the eastern part of 
the continent it is rarely found north of New York, or about latitude 41°. 
Hawks and birds of prey generally, are more numerous in the prairie country than in 
timbered regions, the reason probably being that they have better opportunities for seeing 
and capturing their game in the former, where it is also more abundant than in the latter. 
The principal interest which attaches to such facts as the foregoing, in regard to geo- 
graphical distribution, is their bearing on the subject of the migration of species. Almost 
all the birds found in the Dominion of Canada are more or less migratory, but the usual 
range of the different species varies immensely. The length of the journeys made by 
different individuals of the same species is scarcely less variable. Take, for instance, a 
species which, in winter, disappears entirely from these regions and all the country to the 
northward. On the return of spring, some pairs are content to come no further north than 
this latitude, while others pass on to the most northern parts of the continent. Little ap- 
pears to be known as to the general direction of the course taken by the different species. 
Does each migrate in straight lines northward and southward ? And are the lines followed 
by different species parallel to each another? It is well known that we have certain species 
in the west which are rare or absent in the same latitude in the east, and vice versd. But 
it does not follow that they move in north and south lines, but only somewhat parallel to 
each other in such cases, either northwestward or southeastward or northeastward and 
southwestward. Does each species return by the same route as it followed in going north ? 
The fact that some birds are seen at certain localities only in spring and others only in 
autumn would show that they do not; but that they circle round, as it were, after the 
manner of some of the migratory mammals. The prevailing course of the longer migra- 
tions east of the Rocky Mountains, especially of the aquatic birds, appears to be west of 
north and east of south, the reason being that the best winter conditions are towards the 
Atlantic in the south, and the most extensive breeding grounds in the direction of the 
McKenzie valley. The conditions are much less attractive in the opposite quarters, that is, 
towards Mexico in winter and Greenland in summer. As a matter of fact, the ducks, etc., 
which breed around the great lakes and Hudson’s Bay congregate in winter in Chesapeake 
Bay, thence along the borders of the Atlantic to the Florida marshes. Those of the western 
prairie country are found in winter in Alabama, Louisiana and Texas, in Cuba and the 
northern parts of South America. To give a few examples, the dusky or black duck, the 
