18S4.I Scott on Wiiifrr Birds of Otfaiva. I i^ '^ 



other. Of the Caiia(haii winter sunshine, any one can speak who 

 has spent a winter in Canada, and experienced the clear, dry, 

 sunny weather, which makes our season of snow so thoroughly 

 enjoyable ; and of the Canadian winter birds, or, at least, of some 

 of those which visit Ottawa, 1 propose to say a few words. 



During the winter, it is true, we look in vain for the myriads 

 of feathered songsters which make the spring and summer woods 

 resound with their joyous carols ; but we are visited by numbers 

 of little travellers from the far North who, at least to the natural- 

 ist, are no less curious and interesting. 



First among the latter, both on account of its place in the 

 Check-list and of its extreme abundance, stands the Black-cap- 

 ped Chickadee {Par7is atricapilhis) . It remains with lis 

 throughout the whole year — that is, at least, some individuals do, 

 for they are so abundant during the winter, and so few, in com- 

 parison, are to be seen in the summer, that numbers, in the 

 former season, must come from the north. 



Its cousin, the Hudson's Ba}' Tit {Parus hudsojiicus) can, I 

 think, be put down as a rare winter visitant. Very few have been 

 seen here at all, and, as far as I know, none in the summer. 

 The earliest autumn record which I have is October 31 of this 

 year, on which date I observed one hopping about among the 

 branches of a poplar ti*ee, quite near the city. 



The White-bellied and Red-bellied Nuthatches {Sitta caroli- 

 nensis and S. canadensis) are quite common with us during 

 the whole vear ; but while the proportion one sees- in the summer 

 is about six of the Red-bellied species to one of the White-bel- 

 lied, in the winter it is exactly the reverse. The Wliite-bellied 

 are commoner during the months of October and November than 

 at any other season. A Red-bellied Nuthatch was taken here on 

 December 8, the contents of whose gizzard were examined bv 

 James Fletcher, Esq., under a pow^erful microscope, and he says 

 of it: 'T found two skin^ possibly of the seeds of a conifer ; the 

 whole of the remainder of the contents was made up of coarse 

 sand." 



On December 8 I shot a Brown Creeper ( Certhia faDuJiaris 

 r?ij'a) , \vhich is the first instance of the occurrence here of this spe- 

 cies, during the winter months that I can learn of. Mr. Fletcher 

 also kindly examined the contents of the stomach of this bird and 

 reports : '-There were parts of 35 wings of Pysllidjp ; judging from 



