6744 



Birth. 



has been styled Andamia ; also a new type of fresh-water crab, and a 



few insects, with the common large centipede (Scolopendra morsitans), 

 which seems to be universally distributed in hot countries. The 

 marine productions are of course those of the Bay generally ; and a 

 better locality for studying and collecting them there cannot be. The 

 products of the sea, moreover, are obtained with comparative facility ; 

 the implacable and ever-vigilant hostility of the islanders proving a 

 serious obstacle to the collection of the animal inhabitants of the land. 



Birds of Canada observed near Kingston during the Spring o/*1858. 

 By Captain Henry Hadfield. 



(Concluded from p. 6709). 



Canada Nuthatch (Torchepot de la Canada of Buffon). April 16th. 

 Shot what I believe to be a bird of this species, it having a blue head, 

 and differing materially from the common redbellied blackcapped nut- 

 hatch, which has the upper part of the head of a pure glossy black, 

 the sides and the whole of the lower parts rusty brown ; whereas the 

 former has the crown bluish gray like the back, with numerous small 

 longitudinal dark brown spots. The white line over the eye passes 

 quite round the forehead without any interruption ; there is also con- 

 siderably more white about the cheeks and throat, which, meeting at 

 the nape, forms a collar ; the breast, sides and belly are of a grayish 

 white tinged with rufous. The primary quills, as in the other species, 

 are of a glossy hair- brown, but they have considerably less grayish white 

 on the margins ; the first is about a quarter the length of the second ; 

 the third slightly exceeds the fourth, whereas the latter feather is the 

 longest in the redbellied nuthatch. The former has the secondaries 

 broadly tipped with white ; but what forms the chief distinction, and 

 I think proves it to be a different species, is that the wing is rounded ; 

 both primaries and secondaries being greatly incurved ; the outer 

 webs, from the second to the fifth quill inclusive, are but slightly 

 indented ; whereas in the other species the whole of the primaries are 

 emarginate and recurved. In the present species both primaries and 

 secondaries are broader than in the redbellied nuthatch, and the inner 

 secondaries are more elongated. The tail in both kinds is almost 

 similar, but the white patches on the three exterior feathers are 

 smaller, and do not extend to the outer web on the second quill of the 

 Canada nuthatch, which, though of the same length and extent, is 

 a somewhat slighter bird than the other. The head being blue, and 



