956 BIRDS OF PREY OF NOVA SCOTIA—GILPIN. 
any mention from me. I have found, with one or two excep= 
tions, all the birds of this order common to North Eastern 
America, in Nova Scotia, and noticed those I expected to find 
and failed. From their nature and food they are rare every- 
where, and one who has witnessed the scarcity of all animal 
life in our forest, and the little bird life even in our cultivated 
fields, is not surprised by finding a greater scarcity of this 
order. The innumerable flights during the autumn of what are 
called shore birds, chiefly composed of the genera Tringa Totanus 
and closely allied species in their autunin migrations, attracts 
numbers of the genus Falco. Our marshes, especially after 
mowing, which lays bare the runs of field mice, and the haunts 
of frogy, snakes and other reptiles, attracts the harriers and buz- 
zards, and the sea shores of the Bay of Fundy, at ebb tide, left 
in far-reaching and muddy flats abounding in stranded fish, 
bring the eagles and fish hawks for their prey, the latter seizing 
its living prey from the shallow pools, whilst the former, when 
not plundering the fish-hawk, contents himself with the dead 
and stranded fish. Except the grouse, the hare, and perhaps 
shrews in the depth of the winter forest, or a white weasel or 
jay bird, or a red squirrel now and then, the stern winter has 
locked in snow and ice everything that makes food for the few 
owls that hybernate with us. The few eagles and fish-hawks I 
have dissected I have found fat, even in winter; the hawks 
generally thin. I have never identified any kites in Nova 
Scotia, but my son has observed fork-tail hawks in the air, 
which I have also seen, but very rarely, most probably the 
genus Nauclerus. 
List of Rapacious Birds of Nova Scotia. 
FAMILY StTriciIpDzE&—(Owls). 
Bubo, virginianus—Great horned owl. 
‘Otus, vulgaris (var. Wilsonianus)—Long-eared owl. 
Brachyotis, palustris—Short eared owl. 
Syrnium, laponicum (var. Cinerium)—-Great grey owl. 
Syrnium, nebulosum—-Barred owl. 
Nyctea, nivea—Snowy owl. 
