1891-92). ORNITHOLOGICAL REPORT. 91 
on Dec. 6. On the same date a Cooper’s Hawk, Accipzter cooperiz, was: 
shot on Davenport Road near High Park, where it had previously killed 
a hen. 
Lanius borealis.——On Dec. 13, a Northern Shrike was brought in 
from North Toronto.—W. Cross. 
On the forenoon of Sunday Nov. 30, 1890, I heard a flock of crows 
making a loud outcry among a clump of evergreens in St. James cemetery, 
and thinking they had an owl in chase, I was making my way towards 
them when they took flight up the Don Flats and rested among dense 
evergreens. In this flight they passed so close that I had no difficulty 
in determining the object of pursuit to be a Red-tailed Hawk. The 
crows—as is always the case with them—were very eager in the pursuit, 
clamoring loudly, laboriously flapping upwards, and then shooting 
downward in graceful curves quite close to the hawk, whose only care 
seemed to be to elude the “brawling brood” of annoying screamers. 
Again the hawk darted off towards the evergreens on the Castle Frank 
heights, and rested as before in a dense mass of foliage, closely pursued 
by the crows. These short flights were repeated several times until the 
Rosedale heights were reached. The hawk, perhaps hungry, and know- 
ing of the whereabouts of breakfast, seemed unwilling to leave the ground, 
but by this time the crows were largely reinforced, numbering over thirty, 
and their deafening outcry was quite unsupportable. After the lapse of 
a few minutes the hawk again darted off southward, doubling on his 
former course, closely followed by a crowd as eager, noisy and eldritch as. 
Tam o’ Shanter’s witches. When immediately above the drive in the 
Rosedale ravine, being at an elevation of about 100 yards, he suddenly 
swooped downwards at almost a right angle to his course with astonishing 
velocity, to within a few yards of the ground. then executing a short and 
rapid curve he darted up the ravine, and in a few minutes he was soaring 
above the trees and his outmanoeuvred and now rapidly dispersing foes. 
It was one of the greatest and neatest feats of bird flight I ever saw 
executed. The velocity was greater than that of a falling body, words 
fail to convey an adequate idea of the suddenness and magnitude of the 
lunge.—Dr. W. BRODIE. 
(Thirty-seventh Meeting, December 23, 1890.) 
Lanius borealis.—On December 17, I secured a Northern Shrike on 
Ashbridge’s Bar, also one Song Sparrow, Melospiza fasciata, and one 
Tree Sparrow, Sfzzella montzcola, at the same place.—W. METCALFE. 
