Notes on a Nev) Bird. 109 



Biver formation of Illinois, except that it is straight, the 

 raised rings are more angular, and it is a little less slender 

 in general form. 



Thus we have the picture presented of the old Silurian 

 sea, in which flourished a very rich fauna, depositing lime- 

 stone over a broad belt south of the St. Lawrence, as far 

 west as the Adirondack Mountains, and east over Gaspe" and 

 a part of Nova Scotia. Contemporaneous with this the 

 volcano, of which Mount Eoyal is the remains, poured lava 

 and fragmental debris into the waters, hardening the lime- 

 stone, and affording sufficient protection to preserve this 

 small outlying patch from the denuding agencies which 

 afterwards swept away all similar limestone between it and 

 the New York series on the South-west and theGaspe' series 

 on the East. 



This outlier of Helderberg limestone constitutes an 

 interesting feature in the local geology of Montreal, being 

 the only example of Silurian strata with characteristic 

 fossils in a district so rich in fossiliferous strata of the older 

 Cambro-Silurian, or Ordovician age. 



Notes on a Bird new to the Province of 

 Quebec. 



By F. B. Caulfield. 



I have much pleasure in recording the fact that this 

 winter has brought to us a very interesting addition to 

 our list of birds occurring within the Province of Quebec, 

 viz., the Evening Grosbeak, Cocothraustes vespertina, Coop., 

 one of the most beautiful of a group, many of whose mem- 

 bers, unite in a marked degree, brilliancy of tint, with bold 

 contrasts of color. 



The Evening Grosbeak was first described by Wm. Cooper 

 in the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New 

 York. Audubon states that a few were observed by Sehool- 

 9 



