88 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



Europe where they are also found in great numbers in winter, they 

 go by the name, among the Swedes, of " lUwarsfogel" or bad 

 weather birds ! 



The time of their arrival here varies with the character of the 

 weather. In very cold winters I have seen them as early as l(>th 

 and 15th of December, and I have known them to remain in some 

 seasons as late as the first week in March. They are said to make 

 their appearance in Hudson's Bay at the end of March or early in 

 April remaining there for a few weeks and then wending their way 

 still further north to breed on the shores of Greenland or even 

 desolate Spitzbergen ! As the food of these birds consists almost 

 entirely of seeds of various wild plants, their mean« of subsistence 

 amidst the deep snows of winter would seem to be precarious enough. 

 Nevertheless they become very fat, and in the Province of Quebec, 

 where they are found in much greater numbers than here, they are 

 slaughtered most mercilessly for the market, and among our French 

 friends " snowbirds on toast," I am sorry to say, form a standing 

 entree in the bill of fare of a fashionable dinner. 



The snowy owl, Nyctea Scandiaca, one of the most beautiful of 

 our rapacious birds, is another winter visitor, at one time very com- 

 mon even in this neighborhood. I have seen them in considerable 

 numbers on the Island on the other side of our Toronto Bay in the 

 months of December and January. Nothing can exceed the exqui- 

 site softness and beauty of their thick, warm plumage, which enables 

 them to bid defiance to the severest cold, and as they are not over- 

 nice in their choice of food, rats, mice, fish and small birds, all seem- 

 ing to come alike, they are in no danger of starving even in the most 

 wintry weather. 



During this and the next month when strolling through the park 

 or even through some of our streets, where bordered by trees or 

 gardens, the attention of the passer-by may sometimes be attracted 

 by the very sweet and melodious call-notes of two or three handsome 

 birds, busily engaged in feeding upon the tender buds of a maple or 

 stripping ofi" the berries of the mountain ash, and if his curiosity 

 induces him to approach them more closely (and they are often ex- 

 tremely tame and fearless) he cannot but be struck with the beauty 

 of the plumage of some of the number, the head and upper part of 

 the breast and back of the male birds more especially being beauti- 

 fully mai'ked with delicate shades of orange and crimson. These 



