OBSERVATIONS ON CANADIAN BIRDS. 17 
quite deficient in song, my opinion of this matter is, that comparing 
the birds of North Britain with those of Canada, we have only to 
strike from the former list, the British Sky-lark, to be able to compete 
successfully, either as regards the number of performers, or the variety 
and sweetness of their notes. Ihave often imagined (but it may be 
only a fancy) that there is a strange harmony existing between the 
voices of birds and their particular places of resort ; I have noticed 
this in winter in the short sharp note of the Nuthatch, who as he 
hurries about seems ever to say that he must bestir himself as the 
days are short. The lively twittering of the warbler seems to blend 
with the first fluttering of the young leaves; the shrill piping of the 
plover is quite in unison with the whistling of the sea breeze, which 
- comes up over the treeless barren which they usually frequent, and 
surely if we had sought through the whole feathered race, for a 
tenant to our gloomy cedar swamps, we could not have found one 
more suitable than the great horned Owl, whose solemn aspect, and 
singular voice, makes the solitude of such places still more intense, 
The Family of Finches is one of our most comprehensive groups, 
it has been divided by Audubon into 18 different genera, and contains 
according to that author 55 species. Of these a fair proportion are 
found in our fields and gardens, where they render considerable 
service by ridding the ground of the seeds of such troublesome plants 
as the dandelion and the thistle. The greater number are summer 
residents only ; a few remain all the year round, and one or two species 
visit us from the north only in severe winters; of the latter class a 
rare species has during the past winter been observed in considerable 
numbers round the city. I refer to the pine grossbeak, which was 
first observed about the dth or 6th of January, in a garden in 
Merrick Street, feeding on the berries of the Mountain Ash. They 
attracted attention by the unsuspicious way in which they followed 
their occupation, almost within reach of the people who were passing 
on the side-walk, shewing clearly that they were little accustomed 
to the society of man. In small flocks, they continued to frequent 
the gardens where their favorite berries were to be obtained, till 
about the 23rd of February, when a strong west wind, accompanied 
by warm rain prevailed for a day and a night, after which they were 
no more seen. In the winters of 1856-1857 they paid a similar 
visit, but have not been observed in any other year. Nearly all those 
which visited this part of the country were either young males or 
Vou. VI. B 
