37° 



Bird - Lore 



when a male Indigo . Bunting, a male 

 Evening Grosbeak, and a male Purple 

 Finch were all feeding together from the 

 window-tray. After the middle of May 

 the number of Evening Grosbeaks began 

 to diminish, the last two leaving May 29. 

 Fol owing is a list of the birds seen from 

 the dining-room window, with the largest 

 number of each seen at any one time, 

 January i to June i, 1916: White- 

 breasted Nuthatch, 3; Red-breasted Nut- 

 hatch, 2; Chickadee, 8; Blue Jay, 9; 

 Downy Woodpecker, female, i; Bohemian 

 Waxwing, over 40; Evening Grosbeak, 

 51; Canada Jay, i; Redpoll, 28; Song 

 Sparrow, 5; Robin, 11; Junco, 7; White- 

 throated Sparrow, 14; Purple Finch, over 

 50; Golden-crowned Kinglet, 2; Brown 

 Creeper, i; Ruby-crowned Kinglet, 3; 

 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (pair) , 2 ; Bronzed 

 Grackle, 9; White-crowned Sparrow, 6; 

 House Wren, 3; Chipping Sparrow, 13; 

 Black and White Warbler, 2; Indigo 

 Bunting, male, i (the only one^ I ever saw 

 here); Redstart, 3; Yellow Warbler, 2; 

 Flicker, i; Myrtle Warbler, 4. 



During the season I used 225 pounds of 

 sunflower seeds, and incidentally I might 

 mention the shooting of five cats. 



P. S. I started feeding again October 

 13, and since then Juncos, White- throated 

 Sparrows, Purple Finches and Blue Jays 

 have been feeding daily. Today, October 

 22, at noon, the first Evening Grosbeak, a 

 male, returned, and flew immediately 

 into one of the feeding-booths. — M. J. 

 Magee, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. 



Winter Notes from British Columbia 



I notice that you remark, in the 1915 

 Christmas Census, that there were no 

 records of the Pine Siskin. Had there 

 been more observers in Washington and 

 Montana, possibly some would have been 

 recorded, but there surely were enough 

 Pine Siskins around the Shuswap Lake to 

 make one think they had gathered there 

 from all the North American continent. 

 Where I live, at the head of the Seymour 

 arm of Shuswap Lake (about 130 miles 

 north of the international boundary), 



every settler's cabin had its flock of from 

 twenty to fifty, usually accompanied by 

 ten or fifteen Crossbills, the latter in all 

 shades of plumage from green to red. 

 I saw only two White- winged Crossbills, 

 the only ones I have ever seen in this 

 district. All that the birds seemed to want 

 was salt and gravel, and when and where 

 they fed I do not know, as they were around 

 the cabins at all times of the day. They 

 would not touch dry salt, but ate the 

 snow where dish-water had been thrown 

 out. I poured brine over a half-rotten birch 

 stump, and by spring they had eaten half 

 the stump away. 



It was a very severe winter with us, 

 but the Siskins and Crossbills did not 

 seem to suffer any. The lake was frozen 

 ten to eighteen inches, and the snow lay 

 three feet deep. The birds would come 

 into the woodsheds to get sand and gravel, 

 and were quite fearless. After the ice 

 melted, I came down the lake a distance 

 of thirty-odd miles, and noticed Siskins 

 everywhere along the shores; and they are 

 still much in evidence at the end of April. 

 Every family around the lake tells me that 

 they had a flock with them all winter. 



During the winter of 191 2-13 Pine 

 Siskins were just as numerous with us, 

 but no Crossbills came; this was also a 

 severe winter. Some Siskins nested here 

 that spring, 19 13. The next winter there 

 were Crossbills everywhere, but very few 

 Siskins; Crossbills were never so numer- 

 ous as Siskins had been. That was a mild 

 winter, as was the winter of 19 14-15. 

 when Crossbills and Siskins were here in 

 more equal numbers, but neither at all 

 numerous. 



Strange to say, this past winter, the most 

 severe in ten years, I had a Varied Thrush 

 and a Song Sparrow at my cabin all 

 winter. It was the first time I had seen a 

 Varied Thrush here later than November. 

 The poor thing suffered severely during 

 the zero weather, but with a little help 

 survived, yet would never get at all tame. 

 The spring arrivals, Robin, Bluebird, and 

 Junco, arrived on time; my records for 

 these three birds for four springs are all 

 within two days of being the same. 



