In North- West Canada. 193 



Some friends of mine were camping on the side of a lake in 

 the Muskoka district, when, one evening at dusk, one of them 

 saw a small white animal go into one of the tents where the 

 provisions were. He picked up a gun and fired at it as it ran 

 out : they found it to be a skunk, and the stench from it was 

 so unbearable they had to take up their tents and remove away 

 to new camping quarters. . The cooking utensils and provisions 

 were so tainted they had to throw them away, and next morn- 

 ing had to go to the nearest store and get a fresh supply. 



Near Stoney Mountain I flushed a small hawk out of a fir 

 tree, and, glancing up among the branches, I beheld its nest of 

 sticks. I was soon up the tree, and was delighted to find the 

 nest containing four handsome eggs of the sharp-shinned hawk. 

 They were fresh, and I at once blew them to avoid breakage, 

 as eggs run less risk of breakage after they are blown. The 

 ground colour is pale bluish-white, and they are heavily 

 blotched with large spots of rich chestnut-brown, and smaller 

 spots of lavender-grey ; the blotches congregate towards the 

 larger end of the eggs. The eggs of this bird are not unlike 

 those of the European sparrow-hawk in colour, but are less in 

 size. Before me are three clutches of four and two of five. 

 The eggs vary considerably even from the same nest, but all 

 are exceedingly handsome. 



One clutch of four eggs were taken near St. John, New 

 Brunswick, June 1st, 1886, by J. W. Banks. The nest was in 

 a spruce tree, twenty-eight feet from the ground, and composed 

 of twigs of fir and spruce, and lined with moss. Two of the 

 eggs are heavily blotched with rich chestnut-brown, the colour 

 forming a zone around the larger end of the eggs, the other 

 two are mottled all over with rusty-brown. 



Another clutch of four handsome eggs were taken near 

 Taunton, Mass., July 10th, 1880. The nest of sticks was built 

 thirty feet from the ground, close to the tree trunk and resting 

 on a bough. The larger half of these eggs are heavily blotched 

 with dark chestnut, which conceals the ground colour around 

 the butt ends. (See plate 1, fig. 1.) The average size is 1.50x- 

 1.16. This hawk is a late breeder, seldom having eggs before 

 M 



