lO Chamberlain's Ne-v Bru?istvick Notes. [January 



near St. John, any good collecting ground for this class of sea- 

 birds ; for many species reported as common at the mouth of the 

 Bay of Furidy have not been taken here. L. an-a brtiennichi is 

 an example of these. 



From several letters received I am led to suspect that the cor- 

 rectness of the statement, made in my catalogue, that the Hud- 

 sonian Chickadee breeds in New Brunswick, has been questioned. 

 There need not be the slightest doubt on this point, as. I have 

 seen four nests here; one in 1878, built in a stump-; another in 

 1880, built in a telegraph post close by the railway station at 

 Sutton; and two during last season. Of the latter, one was 

 found near Edmunston by Mr. H. A. Purdie, and the second 

 was found by Mr. J. W. Banks in the subiu-bs of St. John. 

 These two were so similar, in position as well as construction, 

 that a description of one will serve equally well for both. They 

 were built in decayed stumps (apparently of firs or spruces) some 

 three feet high and five inches in diameter. The entrance was 

 from the top of the stump, and for the first six or eight inches 

 was about two inches wide ; then it widened gradually to three 

 inches, which latter width was carried down another six inches 

 to the bottom of the excavation. On the bottom a platform of 

 hard-packed, dry moss had been placed, and upon this a second 

 platform of felt, or felted hair, of a bluish-ash color (probably 

 the inner fur of the common hare) , and on this base rested the 

 cup-shaped nest, which was also composed of this same felted 

 fur. The walls of the nest were constructed with great neatness 

 and precision, and were about two and one-half inches high and 

 half an inch thick. In the nest found by Mr. Purdie the walls 

 and lining were composed exclusively of fur, but in that found 

 by Mr. Banks there was a considerable quantity of cow's hair 

 interwoven, or rather felted, with the fur. I saw the nest af Ed- 

 munston on Jtme 14, and the young in it were then but sparsely 

 clothed with down and showing little signs of feathering ; and 

 when I examined the nest near St. John, on July i, the five 

 young which it contained were in much the same stage of develop- 

 ment as those in the former nest had been. 



In March last I witnessed a scene which convinced me that the 

 saying "misery loves company" is as truly applicable to birds as 

 to men. It was a keen, frosty morning in the third week of the 

 month, a day as typical of midwinter as any that January brings 

 us, for the snow still lay deep and firm upon the ground and 



