OBSERVATIONS ON CANADIAN BIRDS. 129 
In conclusion, I have only to ask that future historians will do 
justice to the memory of Auguste Laurent, and will ascribe to whom 
it is due the credit of having given to the science a theory which has 
exercised such an important influence in modern chemical speculation 
and research, remembering that my own publications on the subject, 
which cover the whole ground, were some years earlier than those of 
Williamson, Gerhardt Wurtz, or Kolbe. 
Montreal, January, 1861. 
NOTICES OF BIRDS OBSERVED NEAR HAMILTON, C. W. 
BY THOMAS MC’ ILWRAITH, ESQ. 
Continued from page 18. 
The small family of Marsh blackbirds is next in order, two species 
of which are well-known on account of their gaudy colours. One is 
the Red-winged Blackbird so common in our marshes during summer, 
and the other is the Baltimore Oriole, whose pensile nest we some- 
times see suspended from the drooping twigs of our willow shade trees. 
The former of these enjoys the unenviable reputation of being a 
notorious corn thief, and though several writers have endeavoured to 
clear his character from this imputation, yet if brought to the Bar on 
such a charge, we might expect to hear very strong condemnatory 
evidence given against him by the farmer, and unless he could suc- 
ceed in getting upon the jury a majority of his friends, the Crow 
Blackbirds, who had themselves tasted the corn, the chances are that 
the case would go against him. Admitting, however, that he does 
occasionally take what was intended for others, he amply compensates 
for it by the destruction of innumerable grubs and caterpillars, whose 
ravages among the corn would have far exceeded his own. A more 
remarkable species than either of these is the Cow Bunting, which, 
like the British Cuckoo, builds no nest, but dropping its egg into 
that of another bird, leaves the care of its offspring to those not 
related “to it, even by family ties, With us, the Cow-birds are 
summer residents only, usually making their appearance about the 
beginning of April, and retiring to the south about the end of October. | 
