83 



pletely hidden by thick underbrush. The birds were so excited that 

 they allowed the observer to advance to within two or three feet of 

 them, without paying the least attention to him ; the snake, however, 

 on seeing someone approach, relinquished his prize, and glided off into 

 the thicket. As soon as they saw the enemy routed, "bhe storm of angry 

 chirps ceased, and the robins and catbirds .flew off; while the thrushes, 

 although they continued to give vent to occasional mournful whistles, 

 did not manifest neai-ly the same anger or alarm at seeing their off- 

 spring in human hands, as they did when the snake had posession of it. 

 The young thrush, which had evidently just left the nest, was only 

 slightly skinned on the wing, but was terribly frightened, and died the 

 next day. During the whole of the combat a least flycatcher (Umpi- 

 donan minimus Bd.) was quietly sitting on her nest in the fork of a 

 small willow, only a few feet away, paying not the slightest heed to the 

 exciting scene which was enacting beneath her. 



Among the nests found this season might be mentioned several of 

 the white-throated sparrow (Zonontrichia albicollis (Gm.) B]).) About the 

 8th August the nest of a common Bittern (Botaurus mugitans (Bartr.) 

 Coues) a collection of oak twigs, placed in the centre of a small clump 

 of Cassandra caJyculata, was found in Lake Flora Swamp, Hull, with 

 five half-grown young ones in it. 



On the 11th July, Mr. Scott found what was probably the nest of 

 a red-eyed vireo (Yii-eo olivaceus(L.) Veillot) containing two eggs of the 

 cowbird (Molothrus ater (Bodd.) Gray) almost hatched I This is a most 

 inte)"esting find, as it has been hitherto supposed that the birds which 

 are forced to do duty as nurses to the cowbird's 3'oung, would not hatch 

 the eggs of the intruder, unless some of their own eggs were present.* 



The following additions have been made to the " List of birds shot 

 in the vicinity of Ottawa," appended to last year's i-eport, and published 

 in " Transactions " No. 3, of the Clab. (The numbers refer to the 

 second edition of Coues' "Check List.") 



6. Turdus mustelinus Gm., Wood Thrush. This bird is not 

 uncommon with us, and was inadvertently omitted from last year's list. 



*Since the above was written, the iollowing has appeared in an article by 

 Mr. W. Dunlop in the Canadian Spoiisman and Naturalist for June, 1883 : " Dr. 

 Brewer mentions a ease in which a red-eved vireo hatched three of these (the 

 cowbird's) eggs without laying any of her own,"' 



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