CHAPTER III. 



URING a short walk in the vicinity of 

 Halifax, on the day after my arrival, I 

 observed our European house-sparrow to 

 be very common about the town ; in fact 

 it seemed even as impudent and abundant 

 as in the streets of London, they having, 

 no doubt, now been naturalized long 

 enough to look upon these American cities as their 

 rightful inheritance. 



I observed numbers of the American crow about the 

 fields in the immediate neighbourhood of the town. 

 This bird very much resembles the European species 

 (C. corone), but, to my ear, its note is somewhat different, 

 being sharper and more querulous, and at a little dis- 

 tance having a very great resemblance to the bark of a 

 small dog. By the roadside, among the fields, I dis- 

 turbed two or three American pipits, a bird which has 

 much of the habits and appearance of our meadow 

 pipit (A . pratensis) and, to an English observer, seeming 

 to be almost the same bird. These individuals were 

 evidently only visitors on their southward migration, 

 their breeding range being to the northward, in Labra- 

 dor and up to the Arctic regions. 



On the morning of October 18, a fine, sunny day, 

 I started out for a ramble in the direction of the 

 North-West Arm, which I reached after a walk of 

 nearly three miles. At this season the beautiful and 

 varied hues of the autumnal foliage formed quite a 



