BIRDS ■} 2 g 



pine-forests of the higher mountains. From its relative of the Old World it is 



distinguished by its less numerous spots. 



The three-toed woodpeckers are another group common to the 

 Woodpeckers. *,,,„■,, ., , , , , , ~ , . 



Old World on the one hand and the Canadian province and the 



Rocky Mountains on the other. 



Among the wood-owls, Tengmalm's owl of Europe is represented 



in Canada by a local race (Nyctala tengmalmi richardsoni), and 

 farther south by the nearly allied Acadian owl (N. acadica), which is only 9 inches 

 long, and differs from Tengmalm's in having a spotted forehead and five white bars 

 on the tail. It is a remarkable fact that the Acadian owl, which feeds chiefly on 

 insects, sometimes lives in company with the chickari, or Canadian squirrel, in the 

 same hole in a tree. The great snowy-owl {Nyctea scandiaca), of the north of 

 Europe and Asia, is also common in North America. On the other hand the 

 European and Siberian Ural owl (Syrnium aluco) has a specifically distinct 

 Canadian representative in the form of 8. nebulosum. Another North American 

 member of the group is the widely distributed short-eared owl (Asio accipitrinus) 

 of the Old World. 



Of birds-of-prey, the Greenland falcon is found in the north-east 



of Arctic America, but the rough-legged buzzard is represented by 



St. John's buzzard (Archibuteo sancti-johannis). 



Passing on to the game-birds, we find the willow-grouse, or ripa, 

 Game-Birds. & & „ . . 



of the Old World among the members of a family particularly well 



represented in North America. Another member of the same group is the sharp- 

 tailed grouse (Pediocoetes phasianellus), a bird of dark plumage almost entirely 

 Canadian in its distribution, its range extending east to Hudson Bay and west to 

 the Rocky Mountains and no farther south than Lakes Superior and Winnipeg. 

 Other species are noticed in the next chapter. 



Finally, among a totally different assemblage of birds, reference 



Water Birds. , J ' , & J ,„ , & . , . ... ' . , , 



may be made to the trumpeter-swan (Cygnus buccinator), distinguished 



by its wholly black beak and twenty-four tail feathers. Although nearly related 



to the European whooper, it is larger and faster on the wing, being indeed the 



swiftest of all the swans. Many other kinds of European water-birds are either 



common to North America or represented there by closely allied forms. 



The cold-blooded vertebrates and invertebrates of the Canadian province either 



do not differ from those of the corresponding latitudes of the Old World or else 



belong to species more numerously represented in the United States. 



