HAMILTON SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION 117 



Professor Nausen, in his Farthest North, mentions, I 

 think, the Snow Bunting as an occasional solitary visitant 

 (as well as similar hardy birds) to the dreadful seclusion of 

 his " shack " in the " desolaiio7i of desolations,''^ in the January 

 Arctic Circle. 



Tuesday evening, March 19th, 1907. A slight snow fall 

 this morning, about two inches, caused two workers in the 

 maple syrup business to leave their shanties and go into the 

 boggy parts of the bush to investigate for foot-prints of birds 

 or quadrupeds. My son accompanied the hunters, and has 

 just returned home. He relates that two Mink tracks were 

 found, indicating the movements of full-grown minks. These 

 were followed by two good hunting dogs for the distance of 

 nearly a mile, but the Minks had taken to cover under the 

 matted roots of massive trees, and, for the present, the chase 

 had to be given up. 



The men also noticed the tracks (very recent of course) 

 of a full grown Racoon. Four specimens of " Procyon Lotor^^ 

 were captured in the same locality, two on last Friday, and 

 two on Saturday i6tli, all full grown. These Procyons were 

 found prowling in the ditches and rivulets for Batrachian or 

 Piscivorous quarry. The hunters also aver that they observed 

 very distinct tracks on the snow indicating the flitting of a 

 family of Flying Squirrels, from one hollow tree to another, 

 many paces distant. The tracks of this species of rodent are 

 not difl&cult to distinguish, on a snow-surface, from the tracks 

 of their congener, the common Red Squirrel. " Turdus 

 Migratorious, the common Robin, was very evident, and 

 chirruped most vigorously its demurrence to the evil-disposed 

 canine invaders of the solitudes. The hunters told that the 

 Song-sparrow also occasionally uttered his cheerful refrain in 

 evident faith that spring sunshine would speedily banish the 

 white carpeting. On the return, just as about to emerge 

 from the bush, about a hundred Carrion Crows moved off in 

 hasty and noisy flight from the carcass of an equine, which 

 seemed to have been hauled out of the range of odorous 

 annoyance by the erstwhile human proprietor. 



