92 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. lO-No.6 



surprised to hear the unmistakable voice of one in 

 the woods near Carberry on the evening of Sep- 

 tember 11th. This bird also is very solicitous for 

 its young. Going one evening into the woods to 

 fetch home an easel Mr. Seton had left when 

 sketching, we were almost mobbed by a pair, 

 which kept on for some time, tumbling about 

 among the bushes and settling on the charred logs 

 of trees felled by the fire. We must have been 

 very close to the nest ; but it was too dark to find 

 it, though we felt the ground all round. 



Several species of Woodpecker are common in 

 Manitoba, notably the Golden-winged, (Vohiptes 

 auratus,) which breeds frequently in holes in the 

 trunks of Poplar trees in Uie bluffs. 



Tlie Red-headed Woodpecker, (Melanerpes ery- 

 ihrocephalus,) also breeds but is much less 

 common. 



The Short-eared Owl, (Asia accipitrinus,) seemed 

 to be decidedly uncommon. On the evening of 

 August 20th, 1883, just as it was getting dusk, I 

 fired at one sailing overhead. I thought I had 

 missed him, but it was just light enough for us to 

 think we saw him alight in an open spot in a 

 neighboring field, so we decided to go and look on 

 the morrow ; however, the following day was 

 so windy and wet that we did not go till the 

 afternoon of the day after, when we were sur- 

 prised to see the bird rise, apparently unluirt. It 

 fell to Mr. Seton's gun, and after a careful exami- 

 nation we could not find that it had received any 

 previous injury, except a slight graze on one 

 wing ; yet it had been foolish enough to sit moping 

 in one spot for over forty hours with nothing to 

 eat except one large dragon-fly and a great brown 

 cricket, as we afterwards found by dissection. 



The Marsh Harrier, {Girciis cyaiuus hudsonius,) 

 is a very common bird throughout Manitolia, and 

 may often be seen sailing over the prairies, the 

 sleughs, or the wheat-fields. One morning late in 

 August I remember counting a dozen round one 

 house. It must breed there, but Mr. Seton has 

 never discovered a nest. Nearly all the individ- 

 uals I saw were in the brown plumage ; only three 

 or four wore the adult bluish ash-colored dress, 

 but Mr. Seton says that adult specimens are much 

 more often seen at the time of the Spring migra- 

 tion. This bird often comes and inspects the 

 settlers' chickens, but seldom carries off any ex- 

 cept very young ones — gophers, mice, and grass- 

 hoppers being its usual prey. It is exceedingly 

 easy to shoot, and one or two dead ones may often 

 be seen lying around a farmer's house. The 

 Harrier became a much scarcer bird as September 

 wore on. 



The Turkey Buzzard, (Cathartes aitra,) is prob- 

 ably now a less common bird than when the 



Buffalo was an inhabitant of the prairies, but is 

 still not unfrequently seen, especially if there be a 

 dead horse or other animal in the neighborhood. 

 Its powers of flight are magnificent. 



On the evening of September 4th a flock of six- 

 teen noisy Wild Geese flew with a swift flight 

 over Carberry to the southward. Tliey formed 

 the vanguard of tlie great army of migratory birds 

 which, going northward in the Spring to l)reed in 

 myriads on the shores of the Arctic Sea, returns 

 south again in the Autumn with its numbers in- 

 creased by the yearling birds. 



After the date mentioned, the migration among 

 wildfowl and raptorial birds became much more 

 marked. Goshawks, {Astur ntncapillus,) though 

 formerly unseen, became fairly common. 



The Peregrine, (Falco peregrinns,) hitherto 

 scarce, was now the reverse, though still not very 

 numerous. On the 11th one perched on a fence 

 close to the house; I was just on the point of 

 firing at him with a rifle, when he ro.se; then, 

 after sailing once over the chickens, he hovered 

 over them for nearly half a minute as cleverly as 

 any Kestrel could have done — indeed, so station- 

 ary in the air was the bird that I essayed a shot, 

 but the bullet missed. 



About this time, too. Buzzards became much 

 more numerous. On the 14th an old male speci- 

 men of Swainson's Buzzard, (Buteo sieainsoni,) in 

 very ragged plumage, w.as brought to me. 



The migration among raptorial birds at this 

 period was made still more obvious by the de- 

 crease, as already mentioned, of the Harriers, and 

 by the sudden increase in the numbers of the 

 beautiful little American Kestrel, or as it is always 

 called, the "Sparrow Hawk," (Falco sparverius.) 

 Although I had during the Summer found this in 

 fair abundance in the woods and among the trees 

 growing on the sand-hills (where it breeds in the 

 deserted holes of the Golden-winged Wood- 

 pecker), it became far more abundant round Car- 

 berry on September 7tli, and on that day alone I 

 saw more than during the whole of the rest of the 

 time I was in the country. All day long they 

 were around the house, sitting tamely on fence- 

 posts and buildings, and often chattering like 

 their European brothers. At one spot about a 

 mile from the town, where there was a cluster of 

 trees, I found what I can scarcely call by any 

 other name than a flock of them, as from twenty- 

 five to thirty remained there the whole day. For 

 several daj'S after the 7th they were fairly numer- 

 ous, but all disappeared about the middle of the 

 month. The few that were shot had been feeding 

 on grasshoppers only, and on one occasion I 

 watched through a telescope a bird that was 

 catching grasshoppers among some potatoes. 



