122 Field and Forest Rambles. 



the mass ; the hare, however, is often master of the situation ; 

 and when desirous of crossing the surface, sallies forth sud- 

 denly, and expanding its broadly padded feet, flies across the 

 snow pursued by the owl, which stooping with all haste, is 

 just on the point of capturing its prize, when head-foremost it 

 buries itself in the soft snow, which closes in rapidly behind it. 

 Indeed, so accustomed has the hare become to pursue the 

 above practice, either through personal experience, or inherited 

 dread, that the woodsman, taking advantage of it, throws up 

 his cap or axe as one is passing, when the terrified bunny 

 dives headlong into the snow and is easily captured. 



Looking at the owls which frequent this region, it will be 

 observed that no less than seven out of ten species are also 

 natives of Northern Europe. 



Effects of Climate on Animals and Plants. — 

 The migratory birds arrive en masse, and set about their 

 nidifications without delay ; hasty marriages take place in the 

 ornithological world here as compared with the prolonged 

 love-making of the birds of less rigorous climates, for scarcely 

 has the most assidious reared a second brood before the chilly 

 nights towards the end of August warn them that the time is 

 come for a rapid retrograde movement. By the middle of the 

 month nearly all the swallow tribe are off, and the warblers 

 after them, while the finches and thick-billed birds assemble 

 in flocks, and, reinforced by arrivals from more northern parts, 

 tarry for a week or two longer, and until the first frosty 

 night in October, when the last of the host disappear, and 

 we are reduced to our residenters and the new winter arrivals. 

 According to the carefully compiled list of Mr. Boardman, 

 and further information he has kindly furnished me * there 



* Mr. Boardman has for many years devoted a very close attention to 

 the local ornithology not only of New Brunswick but adjoining State of 

 Maine and Bay of Fundy,— his museum of the birds of the district repre- 

 senting an amount of industry and skill seldom noticeable excepting in 

 public collections. For his list of the birds of this region, see Proc. 

 Boston Soc. of Nat. Hist. , vol. ix., 1862. 



