40 SOME CANADIAN lUUDS 



supported that cimrgo by strong toRtimony. Door tho male niby- 

 throat dosurt Iuh nmte wlutii thu lumt in liuilt? is a (iiumtion yet 

 awaiting final duturniination, and itvory hoy and girl in Ciinuda may 

 holp to Holvo tho problum. And it is just Huch unnolvud prubluins 

 that niako thu Htudy of bird-lifu puuuliarly faHcinating. 



Tho pluniago of tho nialo ruby-throat in rich and ologant. On his 

 back the plumes are of dark metallic green, tho wings and tail 

 varying from this, being bronzy, of a violet tint. Each feather on 

 the throat is tipped with a rich metallic lustre, which sparkles like a 

 gem and changes under tho sunlight from l)rownish black to bright 

 crimson. Tho color of tho under parts is white. Tho females and 

 immature males lack tho red color on tho thruut, and thoir tails aru 

 barred with black and tipped with white. i 



BLUEBIRD. 



Though a hardy bird, and migrating far into tho high latitudes of 

 the west, the bluebird is not common on the Atlantic coast farther 

 north than the valley of the Penobscot. Boardman had found a 

 few pairs near St. Stephen, and Batchelder reported tho species 

 *' frequently seen " at Grand Falls ; but elsewhere in New Bruns- 

 wick, and indeed in the entire Maritime Provinces, the bluebird 

 was almost unknown until 1882. On the Queen's birthday of 

 that year I found a pair at Westfield, near St. John, and dur- 

 ing the following four years these birds were often seen in the 

 eastern parts of New Brunswick, even as far eastward as the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence shore, at New Castle, where Philip Cox dis- 

 covered a flock of six in 1885. In Southern Ontario, and about 

 Montreal, these birds have been quite common, though Mcllwraith 

 reports that at Hamilton the house sparrows have taken possession 

 of the boxes in which the bluebirds formerly built, and the latter 

 have gone away. 



The house sparrow does not always come out the victor from 

 contests with the bluebird, for I have witnessed a combat in which 

 a troop of the '* tramps," as the sparrows have been labelled, were 

 not only driven from the houses, but were so severely worsted in 



