Birds. 6701 



vinces, the common and hump-backed cattle are in a great degree supplanted by the 

 buffalo, to which we were indebted for some of the milk obtained in Egypt, and all 

 the abominable mass of indigestible fibres sold for beef. The buffalo has not made its 

 way very far beyond the second cataract, or into Nubia. It is an excellent swimmer; 

 thousands may be seen on the banks and shallows of the Nile during the heat of the 

 day, luxuriously reposing, with only their heads, or even the tips of their hippopota- 

 mus-like noses, visible above water; the stream that is continually passing over them 

 bringing renewed coolness with it. At times one envies them their position." (The 

 late Dr. W. Arnold Bromfield, in the ' Zoologist.') As contrasted with the buffalo, of 

 course the humped cattle are " very much like our own ;'' but the hump is only one of 

 many distinctions, as already noticed in detail. We learn, however, something of the pre- 

 sent range of the domestic Indian buffalo in the valley of the Nile. The ox of Cochin 

 China, as noticed in Crawfurd's * Embassy to Siam and Cochin China,' p. 479, " is 

 a small animal, uniformly of a reddish brown colour, and destitute of the hump so 

 remarkable in the Indian cattle." It is not identified by this author with the hump- 

 less cattle of Siam, which he also notices. From Johnson's ' Indian Field Sports' 

 (p. 24) it would appear that the gaour (Bos gaurus) inhabited the hill districts bor- 

 dering on the Damooda so late as about half a century ago ; nor would it appear to 

 have been then of rare occurrence. Describing a " hunquah,'' or grand hunting 

 party, when the game had been driven from all quarters to a particular jungle, he 

 remarks, " If any credit could be given to the assertions of the people, there were very 

 few of them who had not seen tigers, leopards, gours (a species of wild bullock), and 

 all sorts of wild animals in the course of the day." The banteug (B. sondaicus), we 

 have lately been assured by our late and much-lamented friend Major Bedmore, is 

 found in the southernmost part of the Tenasserim provinces in large herds ; the ani- 

 mal so much resembling the humpless domestic cattle that our informant, at the time 

 of his personally observing them, was not aware that it constituted a peculiar wild 

 species. We have also learned that" feral" humped cattle are numerous in parts of 

 the province of Mysore, where their beef is held in the highest estimation, and very 

 justly so, according to the judgment of our informant, who speaks from practical ex- 

 perience. — Editor of the ' Indian Field.'' 



Birds of Canada observed near Kingston during the Spring of 1858. 

 By Captain Henry Hadfield. 



Cedar Bird [Ampelis americana). March 3rd. Saw two of these 

 beautiful birds feeding on the berries of the mountain ash. It was a 

 frosty day, with about six inches of snow on the ground ; but the 

 latter end of February had been mild, and the sun so powerful that 

 most of the snow had disappeared, which may account for their early 

 arrival. I subsequently observed a flock of about fifty in a large 

 willow by the road-side, and close to some houses. They did 

 not seem to be in the least disturbed by the foot passengers ; but on 

 the approach of a cart or carriage they would all rise together with 

 amazing rapidity, and, wheeling round the buildings, disappear in an 



