304 Mousley, Birds of Hatley, Qwbec. [j^ y 



passing through these states reach their breeding grounds in the far north 

 by way of Hatley, unless possibly by keeping to the tops of the Bunker and 

 Massawippi hills at an elevation of 1400 feet, which theory I am not inclined 

 to favor at present, in the absence of any further published records of the 

 appearance of the birds until we reach Montreal and Quebec, my friend, 

 Mr. L. M. Terrill, informing me that he did not observe it at Bury, a village 

 some thirty-five miles to the northeast of Hatley. What I think is far 

 more likely to be the case, is that the birds passing through New Hampshire 

 branch off at Lancaster or thereabouts as their most northern point, and 

 pass up through central and eastern Maine to New Brunswick, Nova 

 Scotia and the Gaspe Peninsula, from whence they cross to the Magdalene 

 Islands, Anticosti and Labrador, whilst those from Vermont evidently take 

 a westerly course probably through the northern portion of the state of 

 New York, and thence across the St. Lawrence and through Ottawa to the 

 north, but this line of migration is not nearly so well defined as that through 

 Maine. Dionne speaks of it as a rare migrant in spring at Quebec, Wintle 

 as an irregular spring migrant at Montreal, and says he has not met with 

 it in autumn, whilst Terrill writes me that he meets with it there com- 

 monly in the fall, but irregularly in the spring. From this it looks as though 

 the spring wave rarely reaches Quebec or Montreal, but in the fall some of 

 the returning birds pass through these two places on their way south. 

 This state of things seems to entirely favor my theory that Black-polls 

 do not pass through Hatley or the eastern townships in the spring at all 

 events, and as regards the fall when young of this species might be mis- 

 taken for young of the Bay-breasted Warbler, I have on several occasions 

 when any doubt, existed, shot the birds, but they have always turned out to 

 belong to the latter species. Taking Montreal and Quebec as a base line 

 and Hatley as the apex, the territory inside this triangle is practically 

 virgin ground, and awaits its quota of good observers to settle some of these 

 interesting problems. 



159. Seiurus noveboracensis noveboracensis (Gmelin). Water- 

 Thrush. — Rare summer visitant, fairly common transient; May 19-28 

 (summer); August 26 to September 8. My first acquaintance with this 

 species was on August 26, 1916, when one example only was seen and 

 obtained. In the following spring two more were obtained in May and 

 given to the Victoria Memorial Museum at Ottawa, and six others seen; 

 (five of this latter number at Ayers Cliff) but in the fall only one was again 

 noted the same as the previous year, thus making a total of ten examples 

 for the two years. Mr. Greer of Hatley Centre tells me that on one 

 occasion in summer he came across a parent bird feeding young near Mas- 

 sawippi Lake, and on this information I have ventured to include the bird 

 as a summer visitant on rare occasions. It will be noticed that one half 

 of my records were obtained at Ayers Cliff, which is in the immediate 

 vicinity of the lake, and I quite think the species is more plentiful there 

 owing to its damper surroundings than it is at Hatley. 



160. Anthus rubescens (Tunstall). American Pipit. — Not com- 



