04 SOME CANADIAN BIRDS. 



There is a deal to bo learuud about ahuost all our birds — not 

 about their distribution only, but their habits as well — (juite enough 

 to keep a small army of observers employed for many years to 

 come. And this work — this iield-work — while of great value to 

 science, and interesting to every one wlio has a l«jve for nature, can 

 be successfully accomplished by any intelligent person. He must, 

 of course, be interested in the work, and have some powers of 

 observation, but he need not possess exceptional ability nor be an 

 expert ornithologist. 



To illustrate this, I will cite an instance that comes to my mind as 

 I write. The Cape May warbler was discovered in 1811 and figured 

 by Wilson in his famous work on the birds of America. Wilson did 

 not find another specimen, and neither Audubon nor Nuttall ever 

 saw one in the flesh. Most American observers considered it very 

 rare, down as late as 1883, though Mr. Boardman reported the bird 

 comnum on the New Brunswick border of Maine. Almost nothing 

 was known of its habits and no authentic account of its nest and 

 eggs was published until 1885. In 1882 I met with a number 

 of these warblers near Edmundston, in northern New Brunswick, 

 and found them invariably in the top brandies of tall evergreens 

 growing on high land. As all the birds wo saw were males we 

 concluded tliat the females wore sitting, and of course sitting in 

 that neighbourhood, so we spent several hours, much energy, and 

 all of our good temper in searching among the evergreens, l)ut 

 failed to discover a Cape May's nest. In June of 1884, my friend, 

 James Banks, discovered a nest of this species on the edge of a 

 much used road in one of St. John's suburban parks, and furnished 

 the material for the first authentic account of the nest and eggs ever 

 published. My friend and I had been hunting in the wrong place 

 for the Cape May's nest. Banks learned that the male deserts the 

 female after mating, and while he goes off" on a spree with his 

 comrades, the patient and loving mother builds the nest unaided, 

 and alone cares for her brood. And Banks learned, further, that 

 while the recreant males seek the high trees on the hill tops the 

 females prefer the low trees and shrubbery of the valleys. 



This is not the only good thing Banks has done for ornithology. 

 He probably knows more about the nesting habits of birds, and has 

 discovered more new facts regarding that phase of bird-life, than 



