118 



The Canadian Field- Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXIII. 



species, as well as the distinctive color differences 

 mentioned above, need make no mistake. 



Mr. Richardson stated that he had caught as 

 many as eighteen pigeons in a net at one time in 

 the early days near Ottawa, and that the pigeons 

 would soon clean up a field of peas, alighting along 

 the rows and rapidly moving along, making short 

 flights over each others' heads as soon as the spot 

 was cleared of peas. 



R. M. Anderson. 



Bachman's Sparrow an Addition to the 

 Canadian Fauna. — One does not often have an 

 opportunity of making an addition to the list of 

 birds found in Canada, but when such an accom- 

 plishment is sought, the best place for the focus of 

 effort is Point Pelee, where there is the maximum 

 of chance to get southern stragglers. In the Bird 

 Book, at Camp Coues, the headquarters of orni- 

 thological enthusiasm at the Point, there is a list of 

 the species not yet recorded there, but regarded as 

 among the immediate probabilities. In that list 

 along %vith Pine Grosbeak, Red-bellied Wood- 

 pecker, Carolina Chickadee, and others, stood the 

 name of Bachman's Sparrow, but on April 16, 1917, 

 that name was erased. On that day, as the writer 

 in company with Prof. J. W. Crow, was examining 

 a lot of shrubbery at the north end of Mr. Langell's 

 large orchard, our ears were met with a peculiar 

 trilling song divided into two periods, the first at a 

 lower pitch and much more rapidly delivered, than 

 the second. The difference in pitch was one-fifth, 

 and the speed of the first phrase was almost exactly 

 twice that of the second. Neither of us recognized 

 the song, and we were delighted on shooting it to 

 find that we had the first Bachman's Sparrow to be 

 recorded for Canada. The bird was a male and 

 measured as follows: length 154 mm., wing 65, 

 tail 63, tarsus 18. Records for northern Ohio are 

 scanty, but there is a recent one for a locality op- 

 posite Point Pelee, recorded, I believe, in the 

 Wilson Bulletin. The specimen is number 4140 in 

 my collection. 



W. E. Saunders. 



The Status of Bewick's Wren in Ontario. 

 The record of occurrence of this species in On- 

 tario is brief and the number of observers concerned 

 still briefer. It has been regarded as strictly casual, 

 and the following statement of our knowledge of it 



is made with the hope of changing the present 

 estimate. 



The first specimen was taken by the writer on 

 Dec. 12, 1908, about 25 miles west of London. The 

 day was fairly mild, with a little snow on the 

 ground, and the wren was found in the roots of a 

 fallen tree, busily hunting for food. Recognizing it 

 as an unusually dark wren, it was collected with 

 the hope of gaining some knowledge about the fam- 

 ily. When it proved to be a Bewick's a new species 

 for Canada, interest was increased, but further 

 search was unproductive until on April 24, 1909, 

 one was heard singing, and was collected, from a 

 tree immediately beside the "shack" at Point Pelee. 

 The addition of another specimen on the 26th, from 

 a different part of the Point, was the first real hint 

 received that the bird was anything but a casual. 

 Then our knowledge stood still for years. Stories 

 came to our ears of large dark wrens, seen near 

 the edge of the marsh in the winter and there was 

 always the surmise that one of these might be taken, 

 and prove to be a Berwick's, thereby .supporting the 

 idea that it was a regular inhabitant of the province. 

 That hope has not been realized, and the identity 

 of those so-called marsh wrens, wintering at the 

 Point, is still a mystery. But on April 1, 1917, 

 another Bewick's Wren was seen and heard to 

 sing within 25 yards of the h?use. The next day, 

 Sunday, he was still around, and on Monday came 

 the great event in the world of wrens, when we 

 saw and heard no less than five birds, and felt that 

 we would not be too destructive in taking one of 

 them, which we did. 



Our experience at the Point is that every so 

 often (a phrase that succinctly expresses the exact- 

 ness of our knowledge in the matter) there comes 

 a day when some species has its da^ of migration. 

 We have seen the days of Bluebirds, Blue Jays, 

 male Marsh Hawks, Black Poll Warblers, etc., 

 and, here, at last, seemed to be the day of Be- 

 wick's Wren. Five in one day of a species of 

 which all the previous years had disclosed but three, 

 was truly a great number, and tells in terms not to 

 be denied, that Bewick's is a regular resident of 

 Ontario, whose exact domicile in summer is yet to 

 be disclosed. Time alone will tell if this theory is 

 correct, and it may easily prove that the instance 

 is one of varying abundance, so often exhibited 

 in the case of species studied at or near their 

 northern limit. 



W. E. Saunders. 



