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But you will say I am sermonizing, and you will grow weary of 

 me before I have well entered on my subject, so let me continue more 

 to tlie point and say something of our Canadian birds. My observa- 

 tions are very limited both as to time and the ground I have traversed. 

 I can only tell you a little about some birds in Eastern Ontai^io. Let 

 me begin with the eagle. 



The Bald-headed Eagle, Haliaetus hucocephalus, seems to be almost 

 unknown now in the County of Renfrew. I have seen one in the 

 course of three years, and that was a straggler. A few years ago I 

 believe they were not uncommon. A pair still breeds, I am told, in 

 the upper reaches of the Madawaska river, and just outside the County,, 

 at the headwaters of the same river, in the Nipissing district, they are 

 still met with. I have seen one nest of these birds, a high mass of 

 sticks in an elm tree close to the Bideau lake. This was nearly four- 

 years ago. On the 12th of May the nest was not completed, for whilst 

 I watched, one of the old birds flew over my head with a 

 piece of straw or reed in its beak, evidently intended as lining 

 for that nest. Whether they still nest there I cannot say, but probably 

 not. The golden eagle [Aquila chrysaetos) used also, I think, to nest in 

 some of the rocks in the remote parts of Renfrew county. There is a 

 very fine stuffed specimen of this bird in the village of Renfrew which 

 was shot near the Petawawa river. The next birds I shall speak of 

 are the hawks. In the southern part of the county of Lanark these are 

 more plentiful than in Renfaew. In the latter county, although we 

 might expect the contrary, they are quite rare. The fish hawk (Pandion 

 JiMiaetas carolinensis) is occasionally seen, and nests in the locality. 

 The nest is as a rule placed upon the top of a rampike standing in the 

 water. I have noticed the goshawk [Accipiter atricapilhts), the red-tail 

 {Buteo horealis), the broad-winged Biiteo laiissinms Cooper's (Accipiter 

 Cooperi) — of this I am not quite sure ; the marsh hawk {Circus liud- 

 sonius), the sparrow hawk [Falco sparverius). Of the first of these I 

 found a nest in the county of Lanark, containing three eggs, on the 2nd 

 of May, slightly incubated. A very fine specimen was shot the winter 

 before last just outside of the village of Renfrew, and was given to me. 

 I now have it stuffed and set up in a case. But the two commonest 

 hawks are the broad-winged and the sparrow ; the former in the bush,. 



