34 Bird-Life in Lahrddor, 



*' russingel," or red singer : red thrush as some like better. I 

 found it all up and down the coast, though more common and 

 even abundant at the extreme points. A most beautiful little 

 scene comes to my recollection whenever I see or hear the 

 *' russingel " ; it is pictured in a very short sentence in my note 

 book, and the event occurred at Red Bay : We entered Red 

 Bay of a Sunday. I shall never forget the clear, beautiful^ 

 Varying shades of green on the slopes, and the dark outlines 

 of the houses, as the sun sank behind the Western hills^ 

 overshadowing them for an instant, the first night of our en- 

 trance into this charming little harbor. We could see the peo- 

 ple all along the shore, wending their way to church ; while 

 in place of the well-known music of the church bells, the rob- 

 ins, here equally abundant as at home, and the *■' russingels,"' 

 or fox spairrows, sent forth a perfect melody (>f harmony that 

 accorded well with the scene. The first of these birds that I 

 succeeded in obtaining was from a snuill fiock of fjur or five 

 that had alighted upon the ridge-pole of the house on one of 

 the islands where I was staying. That was on May 2d. It 

 sings at morniog and evening, and in places where it is abund- 

 ant is found everywhere in the dells and low growths of the 

 lowlands. It may breed, but of this I am unable to speak 

 positively. On the lower North shore region, about Natash- 

 quan and Mingan, the fox-sparrow is very common and its 

 habits are much the same as in the States. It prefers the 

 scrubby, leafless bushes, and leaf-strewn ground of dry or moist 

 places, in which to rush about and play at a sort of aviarian 

 lag, to all appearances much to their own satisfaction. 



EUSTY BLACKBIRD RUSTY GRACKLE 



Scolecophagus ferrugineus. — (Gm.) Sw. 



My first acquaintance with this species was on September 

 24th, while we were lying befogged just off St. Augustine, 

 when a pigeon hawk, a small owl, probably the scops asio or 

 scveet'h owl, and one of these birds, each at different times, 



