NATURE IN ACADIE. 45 



daytime in this species is well known ; it was shortly 

 after noon when I saw the present individual, and Snow 

 was falling rather fast at the time. I judged it to be 

 a male, the female being considerably larger in size, 

 and in fact almost rivalling the great horned, or 

 American eagle-owl. 



Continuing on my way I disturbed a pine grosbeak 

 from the ground at the foot of a fir-tree ; this is a very 

 handsome scarlet-tinted bird and is by no means 

 unknown in the province at certain seasons, although 

 breeding farther north. Pushing on again, the great 

 foggy expanse of Bedford Basin soon came into view 

 below me, and before long I reached the road which 

 winds round by the water's edge, and started homeward, 

 well satisfied with my day's ramble. 



On the following day I came across a solitary pair of 

 fox sparrows in a rocky and elevated spot by Melville 

 Island. These were evidently very late stragglers, as 

 the majority must have departed to the northward ten 

 days before, this sparrow breeding farther north, in 

 Newfoundland and Labrador. 



At about n a.m. on the 25th I was in the woods 

 near Three Mile House when my attention was attracted 

 by a great outcry among a party of perhaps a hundred 

 crows wheeling over the tree-tops at a short distance. 

 I soon perceived that they were vigorously mobbing 

 a large barred owl which was sailing leisurely along in 

 the direction of the Bedford Basin, the crows closely 

 surrounding the stranger, and darting down so close 

 as almost to touch it, uttering all the while loud and 

 incessant outcries. The owl seemed but little con- 

 cerned by their attacks, however, only occasionally 

 uttering a low harsh scream or growl, while it sailed on 

 straight ahead, soon leaving the majority of its per- 

 secutors behind and being only pursued by four or five 

 of the crows, which followed it right over to the great 

 woods across the Basin. No doubt the excited resent- 

 ment of the stranger's visit by the crows was largely 

 due to the fact that the latter were actively engaged in 

 nesting operations. 



