56 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. III. 



on Dec. 6. On the same date a Cooper's Hawk, Accipiter cooperii, was 

 shot on Davenport Road near High Park, where it had previously killed 

 a hen. 



Lanius borealis. — On Dec. 13, a Northern Shrike was brought in 

 from North Toronto. — W. CROSS. 



On the forenoon of Sunday Nov. 30, 1890, I heard a flock of crows 

 making a loud outcry among a clump of evergreens in St. James cemetery, 

 and thinking they had an owl in chase, I was making my way towards 

 them when they took flight up the Don Flats and rested among dense 

 evergreens. In this flight they passed so close that I had no difficulty 

 in determining the object of pursuit to be a Red-tailed Hawk. The 

 crows — as is always the case with them — were very eager in the pursuit, 

 clamoring loudly, laboriously flapping upwards, and then shooting 

 downward in graceful curves quite close to the hawk, whose only care 

 seemed to be to elude the " brawling brood " of annoying screamers. 

 Again the hawk darted off towards the evergreens on the Castle Frank 

 heights, and rested as before in a dense mass of foliage, closely pursued 

 by the crows. These short flights were repeated several times until the 

 Posedale heights were reached. The hawk, perhaps hungry, and know- 

 ing of the whereabouts of breakfast, seemed unwilling to leave the ground, 

 but by this time the crows were largely reinforced, numbering over thirty, 

 and their deafening outcry was quite unsupportable. After the lapse of 

 a few minutes the hawk again darted off southward, doubling on his 

 former course, closely followed by a crowd as eager, noisy and eldritch as 

 Tarn o' Shanter's witches. When immediately above the drive in the 

 Rosedale ravine, being at an elevation of about 100 yards, he suddenly 

 swooped downwards at almost a right angle to his course with astonishing 

 velocity, to within a few yards of the ground, then executing a short and 

 rapid curve he darted up the ravine, and in a few minutes he was soaring 

 above the trees and his outmanoeuvred and now rapidly dispersing foes. 

 It was one of the greatest and neatest feats of bird flight I ever saw 

 executed. The velocity was greater than that of a falling body, words 

 fail to convey an adequate idea of the suddenness and magnitude of the 

 lunge. — Dr. W. Brodie. 



(Thirty-seventh Meeting, December 23, 1S90.) 



Lanius borealis- — On December 17, I secured a Northern Shrike on 

 Ashbridge's Bar, also one Song Sparrow, Melospiza fasciata, and one 

 Tree Sparrow, Spizella monticola, at the same place. — W. METCALFE. 



