Notes, Reviews and Comments. 27 



collections must prove very important educational factors, and that 

 the study of the minerals, rocks, birds, animals and plants there 

 displayed must exercise a very marked influence upon the minds 

 of! those whose tastes tend naturally in the direction of some of 

 the branches of NaturalHistory. The necessity ot increased 

 accommodation for the display of the contents of the Museum 

 is pointed out, as also the dangler to which these valuable col- 

 lections, representing the work of half a century, are 

 exposed in their present location. The report on the whole 

 contains a very large amount of valuable information relating to 

 the Mineral Resources and Natural History of the entire 

 Dominion, and should have a wide circulation. 



. R. W. E. 



Ornithology.- — Brozvn Pelican. — There has recently been 

 added to the collection at the Geological Museum, a mounted 

 specimen of the Brown pelican {Pelecanus fuscus,) obtained by 

 Dr. Ami from J. W. Hogg, Esq., of Pictou, N. S., by whom it 

 was shot in May, 1892, on Pictou Island. It is a male bird, in 

 breeding plumage and in excellent condition. Another specimen 

 taken previously in the same locality, was to be seen in the 

 museum of the Pictou Academy until its destruction by fire in the 

 fall of 1894. Unlike the white species, which frequents the rivers 

 and lakes of the interior, breeding largely in the Canadian 

 North-West, the Brown pelican is a bird of the southern sea- 

 coasts, and seldom penetrates further to the north than Long 

 Island, N. Y. The two individuals above mentioned are believed 

 to be the only ones on record for Canada. An allied species on 

 the Pacific coast, the California brown pelican, sometimes visits 

 British Columbia. 



Winter Birds. — The Pine grosbeaks arrived at an unusually 

 early date this winter, one being taken on 18th November by 

 Mr. W. H. Thicke. Throughout the winter they have been 

 present in larger numbers than in any previous season since 

 1888. They feed mostly on mountain-ash berries, but a com- 

 plaint comes from the Experimental Farm of numerous 

 depredations committed upon the buds of the Norway spruces. 



