348



Henry B. Rathborne,



SOME CANADIAN BIRDS.


By Henry B. Rathborne.


It may seem strange to our readers, on observing the heading

of these notes, to find themselves suddenly conveyed in thought to

Philadelphia, but as a result of the discovery that, when visiting

Canada, I could also manage a glimpse of the United States without

any extra charge on my ticket, I found myself one evening in the

Delawar Bay and the first thing I observed was a fine Osprey

fishing ; he gave the steamer a wide berth, but I noticed him

make several stoops at fish, which proved unsuccessful, after which

he returned to land.


It was a Sunday night, the 21st July C after the usual troubles

with the Customs) that we landed at Philadelphia. The weather

was warm and summer-like and with high temperatures something

like 95° in the shade ; every one seemed in a hurry and rush as if

life depended on their keeping their watches in their hands. The

town was suffocatingly hot, so I immediately made inquiries and

discovered a place much more suited to my tastes. This was Pair-

view Park, which I reached by trolly car: it was beautifully laid

out in flower beds, and European Sparrows together with immature

bronze Grackles seemed in possession, the latter waddling about on

the grass and staring up with their impertinent little grey eyes in a

most daring way.


Again taking the trolly car which runs round the park I

alighted at a miniature forest called Belmont Glen. It was now

late in the afternoon, a large number of Chimney Swifts iChatura

pelagica ) were circling round the buildings and garden Kiosk, much

as our own birds do in the old world, but these birds are much shorter

in the wing, with hardly any tail and a habit of distending their

primaries, which gives them a ragged appearance ; their wing motions

are quick and their flight bat-like.


I followed the path to Belmont Glen where there was quite

a nice little brook running through a forest of huge trees; by this

time the shades of evening were fast falling, but I saw some birds

moving about with all the appearance of going to roost : a closer

acquaintance proving them to be a hen Virginian Cardinal and some

grown-up young ones.



