480 Mousley, Birds of Hatley, Quebec. [o"t. 



above the ground. The inside of this little stump seemed fitted by 

 nature for the home of a Wren, for the branches where they had 

 been cut off from the outside extended through the bark to about 

 the center of the stump, and where two or three came together 

 from opposite sides they formed a natural support, of which the 

 Wrens had taken advantage, not only for the foundation of their 

 nest to rest upon, but also to hold up the dome. The supports 

 of this latter (which was two inches in height, and composed of 

 small fir twigs and some feathers) were sixteen inches down from 

 the top of the stump, the inside diameter of which was 3| inches. 

 At one side of the dome, of course, there was an aperture allowing 

 the ingress and egress of the birds to the bed of the nest below, 

 which was 2| inches from the underside of the dome. Below the 

 bed to the foundation supports there was a further space of 3^ 

 inches, which was made up of small fir twigs, pithy chips, feathers 

 and some horsehair for a lining, upon which rested the four fully 

 fledged young. It will thus be seen that the total height of this 

 nest from the foundation to the top of the dome was eight inches, 

 but there will always be a lurking suspicion in my mind as to 

 whether the dome was really intentional or only accidental. It 

 could easily have been the latter, for the supports holding it up may 

 possibly have formed an obstacle to the easy conveyance of mate- 

 rials to the nest below, and so in time a number of twigs may have 

 had to be left behind by the birds, and so have formed an unin- 

 tentional dome. However, this is one of those little nature prob- 

 lems that are constantly presenting themselves, and of which, as 

 in the present case, there appears to be no immediate solution. 



On the fifteenth I had yet another surprise, which enabled me to 

 add one more breeding bird to my list, in the shape of the Vir- 

 ginia Rail, a parent bird of which was seen in a little marsh near 

 Hatley Centre accompanied by her brood of young. This is the 

 second time only that I have come across these Rails, the last 

 occasion being in July, 1915, when I saw two of them in " the marsh" 

 near my house. It is somewhat difficult this year to say exactly 

 when the fall migration of warblers set in, as apparently there was 

 no very decided wave, but I fancy it commenced on August the 

 twentieth; at all events this is the first occasion on which I appear 

 to have any decided increase of entries in my notebook. From this 



