NOTES ON CANADIAN ORNITHOLOGY. 343 



Vancouver. On the prairie we heard the clear " pill-willet" of 

 the Plover of that name. There we also saw those piles of milk- 

 white bones, and the frequent deep paths across the deserted 

 land, which are the last evidences of the wild Buffalo in that 

 region. At Vancouver water-birds are abundant, including the 

 Heron and the Osprey. Both of the last can be watched feeding 

 from the city bridges. I saw an Osprey carry a fish to the summit 

 of a dead tree some two hundred feet high, but a half-dozen Crows 

 were in pursuit, and gave the bird no rest. One of them would 

 sometimes hover close above the Osprey, but none dared to come 

 within reach of the larger bird ; and when it spread its wings, 

 ruflled its feathers, and uttered its whimpering cry, they retired 

 to a more respectful distance ; finally, they left the spot. 



One day a White-headed Sea Eagle, Haliaetus leuceoephalus, 

 flew from the giant trees in the park, and sped across a wide 

 valley. The small red Sparrowhawk, Falco sparverius, sometimes 

 entered the city, and then the Purple Martins, Progne subis, 

 attacked it with admirable courage and skill. Two or three of 

 them would successively stoop at it, like little falcons, " hammer 

 and tongs," until the objectionable stranger had departed. The 

 Crows at Vancouver city are numerous, quite tame, loquacious, 

 and imitative. They are never molested, except by the Purple 

 Martin and the Barn Swallow. When two Crows began to peer 

 about the ledges of a house, near a Swallow's nest, the two little 

 birds attacked the invaders with delightful gallantly, and, mar- 

 vellous as it may seem to relate, I saw one upset a crow from its 

 perch on a spout whence it was leaning forward inquisitively. 

 I also saw a Purple Martin repeatedly swooping at a Crow in a 

 hollow between two houses. Directly the large bird rose from 

 the ground the little one darted at him and made such an attack 

 that the other was glad to get away. Late in the evening the large 

 Northern Black-cloud Swift, NepJicecetes borealis, was speeding 

 about; but I saw nowhere in Canada any behaviour comparable to 

 that of C. apus when sometimes at nightfall it seems to retire into 

 the sky. 



The American Robin is common at Vancouver city. Its song 

 is delivered like that of the Missel Thrush, Tardus viscivorus ; 

 but whereas the latter bird often utters four or five or more full 

 tones in one strain, the former has generally only two and some- 

 times three. Its song is really pitiful, the more so as it is repeated 



