Nov. 1885.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



175 



by the inherent destructiveness and mischief of 

 some nitliless boy, who had, as I was led to infer 

 from the scattered embryos and shells upon the 

 walk beneath, either stoned or poked tlicm from 

 their nest. The pair disappeared and were never 

 seen more. 



Tlie horticulturist has long eyed these " cherry 

 birds" with suspicion, if not with hostility, for 

 their peculiar fondness for garden fruits and cher- 

 ries. They are, however, very benefieial birds, 

 much more so than injurious, and for this reason 

 siiould be protected and tolerated. They destroy 

 vast numbers of harmful bugs, caterpillars and 

 canker-worms. Occasionally they awake from 

 their lethargic moods and launch forth on vigor- 

 ous wing after flying insects. 



While tlie Cedar Bird is to some extent a Spring 

 and Autumn migrant, he does not hesitate to 

 brave the rigor of our northern winters, where he 

 collects in communities amid the thickets and 

 groves. There they feed on various berries, es- 

 pecially those of the Cedar and other small cling- 

 ing fruits. Occasionally they sally forth from 

 tliese retreats and enter the cities and villages 

 and feed upon the berry clusters of the ornamen- 

 tal Mountain Ash to repletion, sometimes spend- 

 ing the entire day in the tree. This is not unu- 

 sual, for I have oljserved them thus for successive 

 Winters. 



The plumage of the Cedar Bird is strikingly 

 .soft and smooth, and the colors of the body are 

 full of rich and insensible blendings, which shade 

 fi-om an ashy color on the rump through cinna- 

 mon to a rich purplish cinnamon on the breast 

 and head; and through yellowish or yellowish 

 li\itT on the belly, to the white of the under tail- 

 coverts. He has a prominent crest of cinnamon 

 drab and a sinister stripe of velvet black across 

 and above the eyes, which is brought out in strong 

 relief against the prevailing body color, by a mar- 

 ginal line of purest white above, and a spot of the 

 same color at the lower base of the bill. 



The inner wing quills and occasionally the tail 

 feathers — which arc each finished off with a touch 

 of chrome yellow — terminate in peculiar horny- 

 Idvc appendages strangely suggestive of red seal- 

 iug-wax. Sometimes these singular adjuncts are 

 wanting, usually in the young birds. 



This bird is from six to seven inches in length, 

 and the eggs, which are laid in a carefully con- 

 structed nest of mosses and various fibrous mate- 

 rials, are from three to six in number, and have a 

 pale or livid l)hiish ground sharply and thickly 

 diitted and blotched with blackish spots. Aver- 

 age specimens of the eggs measure about eightj'- 

 two by sixty one hundredths of an inch. 



Canada Goose in Nova Scotia. 



BY .1. MATTHEW JONES. {FoTCSt ai\d Stream.) 



A few floctvs undoubtedly pass tl^e winter on our Atlantic 

 coast, for almost annually during that season specimens are 

 shot by persons along the shores, and therefore it is some- 

 what difficult to ascertain with certainty the date of the ar- 

 rival of the southern migrants on their way north in Spring. 

 A flock of forty were observed Feb. 23, 1810, at Glace Bay, 

 Cape Breton, going north. This is the earliest date we have 

 recorded of their migration in a northerly direction. The 

 unusully high temperature which prevailed over the Marl, 

 time Provinces during that mouth, had doubtless much to 

 do with this early migration, if such it can be called, as the 

 flock which had probably w'ntered on some part of the At- 

 lantic coast, was enticed by the absence of ice from shore 

 waters, .as well as the broken state of ice in the Gulf of St , 

 Lawrence, which was remarkable during that Winter, to 

 venture on their northern journey so early. In the early 

 _ l)art of February, ISTl, a small flock was observed outside 

 Ship Harbor, Halifax county, and one shot and brought to 

 town. Again, in January, 1S79, a flock of twenty frequented 

 the coast between Lawrencetown and Cole Harbor, Halifax 

 county. The most remarkable occurrence, however, as re- 

 gards the appearance of Wild Geese here in Winter, took 

 place on Dec. 23, 1.S83, a most inclement day, when the ther- 

 mometer fell to 15° below zero, with a stiff northerly gale, a 

 flock of Wild Geese passed over Halifax city, steering for the 

 entrance to the harbor. Again, as late as Dec. 13, 1884, a 

 flock of thirty passed over King's county, close on the Bay 

 of Fundy. 



From these facts and others with which we could supple- 

 ment them, we may conclude to a certainty that a few flocks 

 of Wild Geese do winter here. 



Although, as we have before remarked, owing to these 

 stray flocks wintering with us, and moving from one point 

 to another, it is difflcult to ascertain the true date of the 

 arrival of the migratory bands from the south; yet we ven- 

 ture from our record of ooservations made during the last 

 twenty-four years to state that the earliest arrivals may be 

 set down as usually occurring from the Oth to the 12th of 

 March; but should the temperature be lower than ordinary 

 at that period, and the weather be severe, the migration is 

 delayed until milder weather occurs. Sometimes it so hap- 

 pens that a week or ten days of unusually mild weather oc- 

 curs early in Spring, which has the effect of bringiug to our 

 province the leading columns of migrants, and the sudden 

 change to a low temperature again which frequently takes 

 l)lacc on such occasions and that for a prolonged term, 

 proves most disastrous to the Geese. In the last week of 

 February, 1880, the weather was remarkably mild, as may be 

 imagined when we state that flies were observed buzzing 

 about in the sun in sheltered spots on the 28th of that month. 

 This had the efflect of bringing up the (Jeese. On the 20th of 

 March began a cold spell which lasted off and on for a fort- 

 night, accompanied by snow storms, freezing up the coun- 

 try as in the depth of Winter. The poor Geese, unable to 

 find food, were reduced to great extremities and became so 

 weak and tame that numbers were killed by boys with sticks ; 

 hut when killed were hardly worth having, so emaciated 

 had they become. In the Spring of 1882 the Geese also 

 came up too soon to proceed north and were obliged to re- 

 main with us even to the end of April, for the St. Lawrence 

 was covered with ice, and the coast of Prince Edward's Is- 

 land as late as the 20th of that month, according to a loca 1 

 paper, had an ice belt even on its northern sltore " extend- 

 ing at least eight miles out without a flaw or crack, thirty 

 inches thick, and in all respects as safe as any day during 

 the Winter." 



