SOME CANADIAN FEATHERED FRIENDS. 51 
of prey or other animals which probably kept that bird in check 
would have to find food elsewhere, beginning to prey on some 
other species of birds which are known to be beneficial to man. 
In this way the balance of nature, as it were, is upset, and so 
through the extermination of only one species perhaps every- 
thing, high or low, in the scale of animal life is alike made to 
suffer. 
During the summer and early fall I saw several humming- 
birds. One morning I was in the garden, looking for butterflies, 
when just at my elbow I heard a buzzing, very much the same 
sound that a humming-bird hawk-moth makes, only louder. 
I looked round, and there within a few feet of me was a most 
exquisite little creature suspending itself in the air over a 
flower, w’ith its wings moving so fast that they were almost 
invisible. Every few seconds it dipped its slender beak into 
the flower, and then was away in a flash, a bright speck glinting 
in the sunshine and out of sight in a few moments. There 
seemed to be one particular pair of birds that always came into 
the garden. One day, perhaps, only one would come, another 
day both would appear, but nearly always one or other came 
as long as the flowers were in bloom. They may have had a 
nest not far off and were attracted by the flowers, as they may 
feed on minute insects to be found there, or the nectar which 
is to be got from most sweet-smelling flowers. The particular 
species of humming-bird was, I think, Stellula calliope, which is 
found in California and extends further north than any other. 
It w’as not a very small bird, and its chief colour w'as a brilliant 
metallic green which shimmered like shot-silk. 
Another bird of an entirely different group is the heron, 
which seems fairly plentiful in Western Canada. Inhabiting 
the mouths of rivers and creeks, the heron lives almost entirely 
on fish, and it is most expert in catching its prey. Its method 
of fishing is to stand on a stump, or to wade out into the water 
and wait for a fish to pass within measurable distance, when 
down it will pounce and pierce the unfortunate fish wuth its 
strong bill. So unerring is its aim that it rarely misses in its 
stroke. Its flight is rather peculiar, being very silent, yet 
clumsy-looking, with its long wings outspread and slowly beat- 
ing the air, as it flaps along with its long legs stretched out 
behind it, and its head arched backwards. The young birds 
seem to have no crest, but the old birds have a series of long 
loose feathers, which are black, composing a kind of crest at 
the back of the head, but this is smaller in the female bird. 
The back and wings are of a blue-grey colour, and loose white 
feathers hang from the lower part of the neck. Some people 
like the taste of the heron, but I should think it is rather fishy. 
The note of the heron is not musical, being something between 
a croak and a groan ; the sound is not unpleasant though, and 
seemed to me to add to the many other charming sounds of 
animal life in the glorious country beyond the “ Rockies.” 
Basil W. Martin. 
