May, 1885.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



ter lasts, bird-life in the greatest varietj' every- 

 wliere abounds. Meadow Larks, " Quailics," 

 Prairie Chickens, Bay-wings, and a liundrcd 

 other kinds breed on tlie open prairies ; Hawks, 

 King-birds, and Niglitjars swarm in the " bluffs" 

 and woods; wild-fowl in the " sleugUs."* Early 

 Spring and late Autumn see a vast army of mi- 

 grants on the move; whilst, even in Winter, 

 Hawk Owls, Snowy Owls, Shore Larks, Snow 

 Banting, Crossbills, Pine Grosbeaks, several 

 Woodpeckers, " Chickadees," Grouse, Shrikes, 

 ice, enliven the somewhat dreary scene. 



It will be well to say something of the haunts 

 of the birds spoken of in the following para- 

 graphs. Carberry stands at the south end of 

 what is known as the " Big Plain," which is 

 merely a rather unusually large stretch of unbro- 

 ken prairie. South ot the town, and extending 

 almost to the Assiniboine River, lies an extensive 

 i-ange of desolate sand-hills, which are seldom 

 invaded by the foot of man, and are likely long 

 to remain in their primitive condition ; they con- 

 sist merely of wind-formed dnnes, with hollows 

 between, which are tilled with water, and form 

 the home of many a rare bird and mammal. The 

 sand of which the hills are formed is so pure 

 that it can only support a veiy scanty covering 

 of grass; and it is to this circumstance that we 

 are indebted for the fact that the sand hills, un- 

 1 ike the prairies, support a fairly abundant growth 

 of trees, such as Spruce, Poplar, and Oak. Were 

 the grass sufficiently long and dense to "carry 

 tire," the trees would be quickly killed and 

 burned to logs. Mr. Setim has just succeeded, 

 after a long and exciting hunt, in killing a Moose 

 in one of the woods on the sand-hills. Through 

 the centre of the range of sand-hills runs Pine 

 Creek, a sluggish stream clogged with water-lilies, 

 and fringed with willows and bulrushes. For 

 several miles on either side of the creek extends 

 a huge swamp, covered thickly with trees of 

 Spruce and Tamarac, where the Indian pitcher- 

 plant, Sarincenia purpureii, grows by the acre, 

 and all things combine to make a true naturalists' 

 paradise. In Winter, when everything is frozen 

 hard, this swamp may be crossed with ease; but 

 so wet and impenetrable is it in Summer, that I 

 have little hesitation in claiming that no one 

 except Mr. Seton and myself have ever crossed 

 it at that time of year. Of the prairies not 

 much need be said ; they are flat, covered with a 

 line growth of grass, and interspersed with bluffs, 

 which are gradually disappearing before the 

 hungry fire. If iirairie-fires had been by some 



•On tlie Manitobaii prairies any isolated clnster of trees 

 or a copse is known as a " bluflE'*; a " sleugh" iy the invari- 

 able name for a wet, marshy spot or a shallow poml. 



means arrested fifty years since, Manitoba would 

 to-day have been a densely-wooded, instead of a 

 prairie, country. The tire, too, annually destroys 

 the young trees that spring up. In the moister 

 parts, where lakes and (londs arrest the progress 

 of the fires, extensive woods of poplar are found, 

 in which many woodland birds are able to find a 

 home, even though Manitoba is essentially a 

 prairie country. Of the excessive fertility of the 

 prairie soil there is no question. 



The American Woh'm, (Tunl nx miiinitni-iKs.) is 

 a common bird among the trees on tlie sand-hills 

 and in the bluffs, where it also breeds. 



An almost equally common species in similar 

 sii nations, and in the willow-clumps on the prai- 

 ries, is the Cat-bird, (Minntit citi-idmensiK.) It is a 

 bird not easily overlooked, for on entering any 

 dense copse one is almost certain to have s(n'eral 

 peering through the foliage and incessantly utter- 

 ing their loud, harsh, and extremely cat-like mew, 

 especially if the nest be near at hand. It ap- 

 |)roaches verj' close, and is easy to shoot. I 

 found it breeding in a fringe of willows beside 

 the creek which intersects the dry, treeless jirai- 

 rie round Moose Jaw, 398 miles west of Winnipeg. 



The Long-tailed Chickadee, (Panis iitiifiijiilhix 

 xcptciitiioniil/K,) is the only Tit I reniembei- ob- 

 serving, and I believe it does not breed in Mani- 

 toba. I shot the first specimen on September 

 14th ; two days later a pair entered a room in 

 which I was sitting, and I captured them. The 

 "chickadee-dee" of this species is unmistakable. 



Sittii Caroline nsis was not an abundant species, 

 but I brought home one specimen. 



One one occasion I was told that a Wren, 

 (l^roylddytes nedan,) had built its nest in the pock- 

 et of a coat hung on the door of a ferryman's 

 house on the Souris River. 



The Shore Lark, (Ercmophila idpeatrk,) is a 

 common species, breeding on the prairie through- 

 out Manitoba, probably raising more than one 

 brood in the course of Ihe year. 



The eggs and nest of the Connecticnt Warbler, 

 (Oporornis agUu,) taken by Mr. Seton in the exten- 

 sive tamarac swamp south of Carberry, are now 

 in the Smithsonian Institution. They arc, I be- 

 lieve, the first that have been taken. 



The Swallow-tribe seems to be usually scarce 

 in Manitoba; but farther west, as far as the Sas- 

 katchewan, one species is abundant, and breeds 

 round all the water-tanks and under many of the 

 bridges along the railway. As three years ago 

 this region, through which the line now runs, was 

 practically uninhabited, and the Swallows conse- 

 quently could hardly have then found suitable 

 nesting-places, it seems probable that the range 

 of the species has been considerably extended in 



