Notes from Field and Study 



127 



between two and three hundred miles east 

 of Newfoundland it was reported that several 

 birds had come aboard, apparently much 

 exhausted. They kept largely to the lower 

 deck, where they were fed, and a number of 

 the passengers saw them there, but no one 

 seemed able to identify them until at last 

 they were declared to be Labrador Wax- 

 wings. This announcement aroused my 

 curiosity. I heard strangely differing de- 

 scriptions of the birds, but I did not see 

 them until we were nearing Boston Harbor, 

 when they flew all about the steamer. 



My first glimpse was of one running 

 down a post, and shortly afterwards I saw 

 several of the pretty little Red-breasted 

 Nuthatches, apparently as happy to be in 

 sight of land as we were. 



Were they probably driven out to sea by 

 the winds as they were leaving Labrador or 

 Newfoundland? 



Occasionally we see these northern birds 

 here in the winter. Three years ago a pair 

 of them appeared November 17, and re- 

 mained with us until January 27. 



They were daily visitors at my bird table, 

 seemed very fond of hemp seed and were 

 very friendly and familiar. I have not seen 

 them here since, though I eagerly look for 

 them every winter. — (Mrs.) M. B. Mit- 

 chell, Chattanooga, Tenn. 



flight was from east-northeast or, following 

 the Fraser River, they seemed tq come down 

 through the Fraser canon, which splits a 

 deep rift in the wall of the Cascade Moun- 

 tains. But the curious thing is that at no 

 portion of the province east of the Cascades 

 have I found the Wood Duck anything but a 

 very scarce bird, and I never saw or heard of 

 it in the Cariboo district (where these birds 

 were heading from) . Were these eastern birds 

 from northern Ontario, northern Manitoba, 

 etc.? Of late years they have somewhat 

 decreased, though still fairly common. 



The case of the Canvasback is still more 

 remarkable. In 1887 I never saw the bird, 

 and not until 1891 was I able to shoot one, 

 though Duck shooting almost continually. 

 There were considerable numbers on the 

 coast, but up the Fraser it was almost un- 

 known. 



About 1894 it commenced to appear in 

 the latter locality, and was very common in 

 1896 and has been of common occurrence 

 since. Here this spring it was numerous, 

 more so than I ever saw it before. 



It is a common breeder in open country 

 from latitude 54° northward, and a few 

 breed even as far south as this latitude. 

 East of the Rockies it breeds farther to (he 

 south. — Allan Brooks, Okanagan Land- 

 ing, B. C. 



The Wood Duck and the Canvasback in 

 British Columbia 



As an instance of the variation in num- 

 bers of some Ducks, I may cite my experi- 

 ence with two of the species you name. 



When I first came to British Columbia, 

 in 1887, the Wood Duck was comparatively 

 scarce, though little Duck shooting was done 

 then. Each year it became a little more 

 numerous; in 1896 the species had reached 

 the height of its abundance. In that year it 

 was an easy matter in the lower Fraser 

 valley to kill fifteen or twenty birds in a 

 day, but not a small portion of the flocks 

 passing through were killed. About sun- 

 down in September and early October flock 

 after flock of Wood Ducks could be seen 

 flying at a moderate height, from thirty to 

 one hundred yards high. The direction of 



Bird Notes from New Mexico 



I fear that we are going to have trouble 

 with the Flickers, and it worries me, for I 

 can not ask every one to be as sentimental 

 about birds as I am. I have heard them 

 tapping on our wood cornice and veranda 

 pillars. I don't see how worms could exist 

 in painted wood. There is very little wood 

 about here. Nor can I see how there can be 

 any insects in plastered adobe, although we 

 all know that the unplastered adobe houses 

 are hotbeds of ants. We have lots of boxes 

 around and there are wooden fence-posts, 

 so I don't know what to do; all our birds 

 seem very tame. 



Some of our best farmers also complain of 

 the Quail ; in the evenings they descend in 

 great flocks from the foothills, and feed 

 upon the alfalfa. We are too far from the 



