Birds. 6373 



" Columba caribbaea is, I hear on all sides, very numerous in the 

 neighbourhood, but I have never been able to catch sight of them, or 

 procure more than two specimens, both females. There are, I think, 

 some very interesting particulars about them. Robinson, whom you 

 quote, I can quite confirm as to the unusual length of the tibiae. The 

 tarsus is feathered, but only in front ; the posterior surface is bare, 

 covered with very small circular scales, flattened, broad and soft. 

 Now, if its habits of alighting on the large limbs towards the centre 

 of trees be taken into consideration, together with its plump, heavy 

 make, loaded with fat (beyond anything I ever witnessed in wild 

 animals), and its short wings, it must be a bird of far from active 

 habits, not given to long fatiguing flights: and will not this, the 

 lengthened tibiae, be accounted for by their enabling the bird to use 

 its tarsi on the broad branches which it frequents, to support its 

 weight while reposing, exactly like a plantigrade animal ? 



" The spacious caves of the neighbourhood have yielded me 

 several most interesting species of Cheiroptera; one with an extensible 

 tongue, pencilled at the tip, has much interested me. 



" Trusting that these few observations may be of sufficient interest 

 to warrant the liberty I have taken, 



" Believe me, 



"Faithfully yours, 



" W. Osburn. 

 "P. H. Gosse, Esq." 



Scraps from Ike Far West. By Capt. T. W. Blakiston, R.A. 



Fort Carlton, Saskatchewan River. 

 Dear J , 



Since my last letter to B , I have made the following 



short note on the ornithology of this neighbourhood during the winter 

 months that have passed since my arrival. The " winter visitors " are 

 not separated from the "resident natives," because of course at present 

 I cannot separate them with certainty. 



To begin at the top of the list : both eagles and hawks* go to the 

 southward, the last of the former being seen on the 10th of November, 

 and the river closed with the ice on the night of the 11th, so that they 

 did not leave as long as there remained open water. From this we may 



* A small hawk was, however, seen on three occasions during the winter. 



