1853.] 



LAND BIRDS WINTERING NEAR TORONTO. 



over -wliicli a fire liad recently passed, and left everything black, 

 in its course, — saw a small flock of Titmice coming from the 

 opposite side of the clearing. Being dressed in dark clothes and 

 aware of their faoiiliarity, he stood perfectly motionless, for the 

 purpose of ascertaining how near they would approach. Steal- 

 ing from branch to branch, and pecking for food among the 

 crevices of the prostrate trunks as they passed along, onward 

 tliey came, until the foremost settled upon a small twig, a few 

 feet from the spot upon which he stood. Aftev looking about 

 for a short time, it flew and alighted just below the lock of a 

 double-hancUed gun, which he held in a slanting direction below 

 his arm, being unable, however, to obtain a hold, it slid down to 

 the middle of the piece, and then flew away, jerking its tail and 

 appaiently quite unconscious of having been so near the deadly 

 weapon. 



The next I shall notice, are the Sparrows and Buntings, 



Of the Sparrows, the Tree Sparrow, ('Fiingilla Canadensis,^ is 

 the ouly one that braves our winters. Large numbers of them 

 do migrate to the middle and southern States, but small parties 

 of ten or twelve, may often be seen among our shrubberies and 

 gardens. It is such a well known bird that I need not stop to 

 describe it. 



As soon as the fii-st hard frosts have stitfened the ground, that 

 harbinger of winter, the Snow Bunting, ('Eruberiza Nivalis,^ 

 makes its appearance, flying high in large flocks, their white 

 bodies shewing against the clear blue sky, they look almost like 

 large feathery flakes of the substance from which they derive 

 their name. They seldom or never enter the woods, preferring 

 wide open clearings, or the shores of the lake. The peninsula 

 on the opposite side of our harbour, is a very favorite resort of 

 this bird. They feed on grains, grass seeds, and the larvte of 

 insects. 



Early in March, or even in February, if the season be a mild 

 one, the Snow Bunting begins towing its way towards the de- 

 solate regions of the far north ; as early as the middle of February, 

 some straggling flocks have been seen in the neighbourhood of 

 the Saskatchewan, on their way to the northward, and by the 

 beginning of May, they have j)erhaps penetrated to the veiy 

 shores of the Polar Sea. Only one nest of this bird, according 

 to Audubon, has ever been found in the United States, that was 

 seen by a gentleman of Boston, on the summit of one of the 

 White Mountains, in IS'ew Hampshire. Richardson, gives 

 Southampton Island, in the 62nd parallel of latitude, as the most 

 southerly of their breeding stations. Captain Lyons found a 

 nest theie, strangel}' enough, placed in the bosom of an exposed 

 corpse of an Esquimaux child. 



Of the Wood-Pecker tribe, there is one industrious little 

 hunter, the Hairy Wood Pecker, (Pious Villosus,) who may be 

 seen hard at work in the veiy coldest weather, tapping and 

 chiselling away, flying from tree to tree, and dodging fi'om one 

 branch to another, uttering its peculiar sharp shrill cry, and 

 seeming possessed with the very spirit of restlessness, the colour 

 of the plumage is varied black and white, with a small red band 

 at the back of the head. 



There is a still smaller species, the downy Wood-pecker, (Picus 

 pubescens) which resembles the Hairy Wood-pecker so closely 

 in plumage, that it can only be distinguished by the difference in 

 size, this species not measuring more than six inches. 



Neaily allied to the Wood-peckere are the Nuthatches. Of 

 these the red-bellied Nuthatch (Sitta Canadensis) seldom deserts 

 us. A few migrate to the middle American States, but through 

 the greater part of the winter, their curious nasal " kank " may 

 be heard in our woods. If you follow up the sound you wiU be 

 sure to find the little fellow creeping round the trunk of some old 



[NG NEAR TORONTO. l7l 



tree searching for sjnders, or the eggs or larvae of insects, concealed 

 in the crevices of the bark. 



I was not aware, until this winter, that that pretty elegant bird, 

 the Cedar or Cherry Bird, (Bombycilla Carolinensis) ever ven- 

 tured to remain so far north beyond the autumn months. This 

 winter, however, I have noticed a small flock feeding upon the 

 berries of some mountain ash trees, close to my own house. 

 Their congeners, the large European Wax-wing, (BombyciUa 

 garrula) have been seen here occasionally. They are a larger 

 bird than the common Chatterer, but the plumage is almost pre- 

 cisely the same, and they both have the curious vermillion ap- 

 pendages, resembling sealing wax, on the secondaries of the wings. 



Of the game birds the Rufflied Grouse, (Tetrao Umbellus) the 

 Spruce Grouse, (Tetrao Canadensis) and the Quail, (Ortyx Vir- 

 giniana) are all constant sojourners with us, being generally seen 

 in greater numbers in winter, as they then come nearer the haunts 

 of man than at any other season of the year. 



I am afraid, however, they -will soon c:ase to be among the 

 number of our feathered visitors, either in winter or summer. 



The Ruffed Grouse used to be found among the pine and hem- 

 lock woods, lying between the cemetery and Castle Frank, and in 

 many places along the banks both of the Don and Humber. But 

 increasing population and extended cultivation, have driven them 

 from all their old haunts, and the sportsman or the naturalist, 

 must now seek in more remote and less settled districts, for this 

 noble game bird. 



I hardly know whether I am connect in enumerating the spot- 

 ted grouse, or spruce partridge, as it is commonly called, as 

 among the, number of the birds found in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of Toronto. I have never shot one myself, but I have 

 had specimens brought to me, which were said to have been pro- 

 cured not very many miles from here. 



Their favourite resorts, are the deepest pine and spruce woods 

 and cedar swamps, where they feed upon the buds and seeds of 

 the different evergreens, a diet which renders them at certain sea- 

 sons of the year not very jjalatable eating. 



They are very handsome birds. Their general colour is a 

 black brown and grey mingled in transverae wavy bands and 

 spots. The cock bird has a small red bare space over each eye 

 like the European moor fowl. 



The Quail is still- occasionally heard uttering its plaintive cry 

 in autumn and winter about our woods and fields. In former 

 days large coveys used to remain in the stubble fields and about 

 our barn yards, from October until March, but like other game 

 birds, they have experienced no mercy at the hands of those gen- 

 try who shoot for the market, and I fear that in the course of a 

 few years, they will have disappeared altogether from this neigh- 

 bourhood. 



I made great efforts about tlu'ee or four years ago, to keep 

 them about the woods at my own place, and so far succeeded 

 that they bred there for one spring, and I had the pleasure of see- 

 ing a number of young birds flying about the following summer, 

 apparently quite contented with their quarters, and but little 

 inclined to stray beyond them. 



During my subsequent absence from home, however, some of 

 the before-mentioned gentr}^ got into the wood, and shot half the 

 birds, and the rest of the scattered and frightened covey betook 

 themselves to a safer and more distant cover, and have never 

 since returned to their old haunts. 



I have now briefly adve.rted to most of the different species of 

 land-birds to be met vrith in this neighbourhood, from Novem- 

 ber to March. Many of them, like the game-birds, are becoming 

 more rare every year, seeking in less populous districts for the 



