GOG THE BIKDy OF MANITOBA THOMPSON. 



rapidly us to be aliiiosfc a twitter. This is uttered at intervals from 

 some dead branch projectini^- above the rest of tlie copse. If not dis- 

 turbed the singer will sit (inietly on this perch for an hour, repeating, 

 his ditty once or twice a minute, but if approached or alarmed he 

 dro[)s into the tangle, and so eludes both eye and gun. The bird is 

 plentiful in the North w^est, and every wdlow-frihged slough is ringing 

 with their song, so that I can not understand Dr. Coues writing "The 

 song I have never heard." 



Nuttall describes the song as a simple twitter, and this is not wrong; 

 but it is long since I learnt to affix a note of interrogation to the state- 

 ment commoidy made of niiiny of our passerine birds, " a simple twit- 

 ter is its only note!" Something else is sure to turn up. Why, Wil- 

 son said that of the Vespe-r Bird ! In the gloaming, after sundown on 

 the 20th of May, 1884, I was strolling along the edge of a desolate- 

 looking green and brown slough, when suddenly a small brown bird 

 arose out of the sedge, singing in air so sweet and tender, yet strange, 

 that I stood rapt. I never thought of shooting; soon the unknown 

 melody was over and the air song finished with the familiar twitter of 

 the Sw amp Sparrow. 



There Avas a time, not long gone by, when nearly all the birds were 

 strangers to me, and whenever a new singer was heard or seen I felt 

 something like a shudder, a perfect thrill of delight and anxiety. As 

 I learned and knew them one by one, these extreme feelings came less 

 often, for it was only a stranger that had such power to move, and on 

 that evening, the first time for long, I w;is deeply moved by the voice 

 of an unknown bird. Once or twice afterwards I thought I heard 

 short bursts of song from the Marsh Wrens tliat sounded likefragments 

 of the same strains, but I am inclined to think that the mysterious and 

 delightful songster was the Swam]) Si)arrow, whose "only note is a 

 simple twitter." 



This song resembled the evening chant of a bay wing, but w^as softer 

 and possessed the charm of weirdness that might have been derived 

 largely from the circumstances and surroundings. 



204. Passerella iliaca. Fox Sparrow. 



Migrant, not very common, breeding at Duck Mountain. Duflerin: 

 Arrived between April 15 and 20 (Dawson). Winnipeg: Summer visitor, 

 abundant (Hine). Portage la Prairie: Regular but not very common, 

 spring and autumn visitor; arrives about April 22, reappears early in 

 October, and departs at the end of the month (Nash). In woods on 

 Duck Mountain, September 3; one shot at Livingstone September, 1881 

 (Macoun). Uncommon spring migrant at Carberry ; abundant, breeding 

 on the west side of Duck Mountain in June 1881 (Thompson). I ob- 

 served it between Hudson's Bay and Lake Winnipeg (on Nelson River) 

 in September (]>lakiston). 



June 19, 1884, Duck Mountain: The Fox Sparrow is quite common 



