THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 



243 



five to fifteen or more neste in it. The groum 



was covered with dropping?, unhatched birdi 



and broken egg?, the smell Irom which u; 



most offensive. J penetrated about hali a mile 



or more further into the woods and found no 



diminution in the number oi nests, but rather 



the reverse. I was informed afterwards, but 



with what truth I cannot say, that this nesting 



ground covered ten square miles; the place is 



distant about one hundred miles from Cha- 



teauguay but is in the same range of woods. 



Wild pigeons were plentiful that year, after 



the hatching season, in the woods about 



Terrebonne and elsewhere iii this vicinity. 



W. II. Ui.vroui, 

 Montreal, June 1883. 



THE ORNITHOLOGY OF WESTERN 

 ONTARIO. 



Sir,— In the January number, Mr. Mc 

 tlwraith takes exception to two statements in 

 our list of birds oi Western Ontario. On 

 looking into these subjects we find that he is 

 right in both instances ; we can find no record 

 in our note-hooks of the Ruby-crowned Wren 

 wintering with us, even in the mildest winter, 

 therefore that statement must be regarded as a 

 slip due to the close association of this species 

 with calendula. Our error concermn 

 great Northern Shrike arose from the supposi- 

 tion, which we find is incorrect, that the 

 young of excubitorides resem bled the adult, 

 and when we found nests in which the youn° 

 had the breast of the adult borealis we jumped 

 to the conclusion that they were borealis 

 We have few winter specimens f this bird, all 

 being either spring or fall I rds, notwith- 

 standing the (act that En» h sparrows are 

 very common here in w. iter. It will be 

 remembered that in speak, ig oi the yellow- 

 bellied Flycatcher, Mr. Mel Iwraith said that we 

 would undoubtedly find it before long. Judg- 

 ing by this spring's experience it is°probabte 

 that this has been a common bird all alon", 

 as of five small Flycatchers collected in 

 London, three are Yellow- bellied and two Least 

 In his summary of the work done on the 

 Ornithology of this region he made two slight 

 errors which he corrected in (lie next number, 

 leaving the total number of species two hun- 

 dred and fifty-eight to which we have now to 

 add two species. In Toronto, Mr. Sandv's saw 

 two specimens of the Ruff, Machetes pit, 

 "Inch had been killed in the bay at that place ; 

 and in the fall of 1881, Dr. Gamier shot a 



Sandwich Tern. Stoma cantiaca, on a mill- 

 pond near Lucknow, which i- now in Mr 

 Mordens collection. This brings the total 

 number of epecies hack to the original point 

 Pi two hundred and sixty, ;„„., 



>»tenl to let it res! for the present with .he 

 tiope (hat theornithi wi) | 



not long allow it tu he stationary. 



John A. Mordkn, 



. , ... , W. E. Saunders. 



London, ().. June, 1 - 



"OF SHRIKES IN A STATE OF 

 NATURE." 



{Continued from page 236.) 

 On several occasions I have seen ii i n 

 the act of screaming in this manner, when 

 'I would suddenly dan from its perch into 

 a thicket, from which there would imme- 

 diately issue the real cries of a bird on 

 which it had seized.' Dr. Bachman further 

 states IJiat the Loggerhead has other notes 

 than the grating sounds Audubon attri- 

 butes to it:— c During the breeding seas 



and indeed nearly all summ . ,„ a le 



Is some cedar or other tree, and makes 

 an effort at a song, which I cannot c unpare 

 to anything nearer than the first attempt- of 

 a young Brown Thmsh. He seems to labour 

 hard, making as it were almost painful 

 exertions. At rimes t ] ie notes are not n.i- 

 pleasing, but very irregular.' Many later 

 observers concur in attributing moderate 

 musical anility to the Shrike, and I consider 

 the lad established though 1 have never 

 myself heard a, bird ol this kind sin-. But I 

 am very sceptical respecting his' asserted 

 powers ol mimicry; lor the few allegations of 

 mockery we possess seem to be traceable to 

 one or iwo sources, and to demand further 

 mation. But we complete the portraiture 

 Of no bird's lite and character until we place 

 the nest in the foreground of the picture, with 

 all its natural surroundings. Our two 'kinds 

 ol Shrikes, indeed, hived wide apart, and in 

 some ot the little details \ their domestic 

 economy they may differ, but the general 

 course of events is the same in either ease— 

 ' cailum lion (minium mutant; whether they be 

 Loggerheads in South Carolina or greater 

 Butcher-birds in the northern wilderness 

 Knowing our bird as we do now. we midit 

 suppose thai iie would make k ve or war with 

 equal assurance ot success, and there is no 

 'oubt oi the fact thai a Shrike ie an impetu- 



