mw&ifam Tjo 
number of adult males are engaged in agricul¬ 
ture. It is too late to undertake to give them 
a thorough training about the value of wild 
birds. This knowledge should have been given 
them as a part of their common school train¬ 
ing. However, it is not too late even now to 
make them fairly familiar with this important 
subject. Through the medium of the printing 
press and the wisely extended rural free de¬ 
livery, educational bird literature may be dis¬ 
seminated to the greatest advantage. In addi¬ 
tion men and women fully equipped as lecturers 
can be sent into the rural districts, and with 
the aid of the stereopticon and colored slides of 
birds, plants and insects, can instruct in an en¬ 
tertaining manner hosts of farmers and their 
wives. This is one of the educational plans of 
this association. 
“A prominent bird student and writer recently 
said: ‘The main hope for adequate bird pro¬ 
tection lies in educating the children up to a 
proper realization of the importance of birds 
to humanity.’ With this statement and idea we 
are in the most hearty and complete accord; in 
fact, we believe it to be the best and surest 
solution of the problem that we are now strug¬ 
gling with. When we have given the eighteen 
millions of school children of this country a 
comprehensive knowledge of birds in their rela¬ 
tion to man, our great problem will be satis¬ 
factorily solved. Children are our hope for 
the future.” 
Southern Ontario Birds. 
Messrs. P. A. Taverner and B. H. Swales 
have recently issued in a booklet their annotated 
list of the birds of Point Pelee, originally printed 
in the Wilson Bulletin between June, 1907, and 
September, 1908. The list fills about 123 pages 
and enumerates 209 species. Of these several 
are given as extinct, as the ruffed grouse, the 
wild turkey, the passenger pigeon and the north¬ 
ern raven. 
To most readers Point Pelee is perhaps less 
well known than is Pelee Island, which lies just 
off the point and about midway between the 
Ontario and the Ohio shores. A line drawn 
from Point Pelee to Cedar Point or to San¬ 
dusky would leave Pelee Island a little to the 
west. Point Pelee is then near the western end 
of Lake Erie and' stretches out about nine miles 
from the northern shore. It has the distinc¬ 
tion of being the most southern point of the 
mainland of the Canadian Dominion and con¬ 
sists chiefly of marsh. Shaped like a large V, 
the arms and angle of this letter consist of sand 
beach dotted here and there with cedars, while 
between the arms lie a marsh separated from 
the reclaimed land to the northward by a dike 
which keeps out the water. The botany and the 
bird fauna of Point Pelee, although in Canada, 
appear to be largely Carolinian. 
The bird list is notable for many gaps, cer¬ 
tain forms of life—as the waders—seeming to 
avoid it, while perching birds seem to be. few. 
On the other hand, there are some altogether 
unexpected birds found there. The list is very 
fully annotated and in it is found much interest¬ 
ing natural history. An especially interesting 
note is one on. the extraordinary autumnal mi¬ 
gration flight of the sharp-shinned hawk in 
October. Concerning this species the authors 
say: 
“After the coming of the first in the fall their 
numbers steadily increased, until from six to a 
dozen can be noted in a day, which in most 
localities must be accounted common. Then 
there came a day, Sept. 11, 1905, and Sept. 15, 
1906, when the morning’s tramp found sharp- 
shins everywhere. As we walked through the 
woods their dark forms darted away between 
the tree trunks at every few steps. Just over 
the treetops a steady stream of them was beat¬ 
ing up and down the length of the point, while 
in the air they could often be discerned at every 
height until the highest looked like a mote float¬ 
ing in the light. As concrete illustrations of the 
number present: In 1905 we stood in a little 
open glade and at various times of the day 
counted from twenty-five to thirty in sight at 
one time, and Saunders writes: ‘When I saw 
the flight in 1882 it was probably even greater 
than in 1905. There were more sharp-shins than 
one would suppose were in Ontario, and one day 
my brother and I stood thirty paces apart, fac¬ 
ing each other with double barrel breechloaders, 
and for a short time the hawks passed so thick 
that we had to let some go by unmolested be¬ 
cause we could not load fast enough to fire at 
each as it came.’ A farmer told us of sitting 
in his front yard one afternoon and shooting 
fifty-six without leaving his chair. 
“Early in the morning of the arrival of the 
flight there seems to be some regularity in their 
movements. First there is a steady stream out 
on the point, then it flows back again toward 
the base and then out again. This movement, 
however, is not very marked, and by 10 or n 
o’clock it is lost entirely and it is every bird 
for itself. This great abundance lasted, in 1905, 
three days, and the next year four, when they 
gradually began to thin out, though to the latest 
of our stay (the 22d, in 1906), they still re¬ 
mained more than common, and at least fifty 
could be observed in a day. All this time there 
was a steady stream flying across the lake to¬ 
ward the Ohio shore. Near the extreme end of 
the point is a wooden observatory tower built 
by the United States Lake Survey for the pur¬ 
pose of making observations on the changes of 
the shore contour. It is about fifty feet high 
and stands with its base in the red cedar thicket 
while the platform rises well above all surround¬ 
ing foliage. On this vantage point Saunders and 
Taverner took their stand the 18th, and with 
watch in hand counted the sharp-shins that 
passed, nearly all within gunshot. From 11:24 
to 11 :S4, 281 passed us, 207 making for the end 
of the point and 74 returning, making 133 that 
started across the lake within half an hour. 
As far as we could make out without remain¬ 
ing on the spot the whole time, this rate was 
kept up all day and every day of the greatest 
abundance of the species. The 13th was the 
last day of the great flight in 1905, but Swales, 
driving into Leamington, five miles from the 
base, found them as common the whole way be¬ 
tween as they were on the point itself. As he 
drove along every field had its quota of hawks 
and at times every fence post supported one. 
Even in the business section of Leamington he 
saw a number. 
“The hawks were very bold and fearless, dash¬ 
ing by us often so closely that we could feel 
the wind on our cheek from their wings. Quite 
often it happened, once three times in one day, 
that just as we had our guns aimed at a bird 
we wished to collect, there was a swoop of 
dark body, a few choked twitterings from t 
victim, and our intended specimen was carri 
off in the talons of a rapacious little' freeboofi 
The effect of this great abundance of hawk li 
upon the smaller birds and mammals was ve 
marked, and they kept in close cover(. T 
bluejay could hardly be made to forsake 
grapevines, and when at last forced to do . 
glided swiftly and silently to the nearest cov, 
reserving expression of its pentup feelings ur, 
within safe recesses again. The brown thrash 
and towhee preferred to slink deeper with 
their tangle on our approach than to seek a n- 
one, and the red squirrels overhead hurrieo 
gathered what nuts they could and scurril 
away to their hollow tree, refraining from sco ■ 
ing us until safe within their woody fastness 
again. When, however, forced into the open ’ 
hunger the first sight of a hawk caused ma.' 
of the small birds to ‘freeze’ instantly and th 
they would remain absolutely still until the i- 
mediate danger had passed, and in all ca 5 
noted such birds were passed unseen. Inde, 
it seems that hawks and, in fact, most off: 
birds, recognize life almost entirely by its mo ¬ 
ment and not by its form and color. A p- 
fectly stationary object is usually regarded 3 
inanimate, and we have seen a hawk pass rijt 
by a flock of cedar waxwings in the top ola 
dead and bare stub when they thus ‘froze.’ : 
“At times the jays seemed thoroughly to ■- 
joy conditions and delighted to get in the mide 
of a safe thicket and ‘jay’ their loudest. : 
sooner was the first note uttered than a ha< 
was on hand dodging around the retreat in ;e 
wildest fashion, while the jay within shriell 
with well-feigned fear, but apparent delight;,! 
fact, the bluejay is a canny bird, and thoia 
the remains of other species were commoy 
met with, scattered over the ground around soe 
little knoll or log, we recognized their be 
plumage but once. The flicker, too, fared wl, 
though subject to constant attack from the fe- 
cious little Accipiters. They did not even ci.b 
their voices as other birds did, and though f- 
quenting the most exposed dead treetops, seen! 
the more carefree of any of the birds. Mi) 
times we saw a hawk strike at them, but e;b 
time just when we thought it was all up wh 
the flicker there was a little scramble to « 
other side of the trunk and the hawk was s ■ 
ing away to make another strike. But it is 
a one-sided game. The flicker had but a tin 
of a few inches to describe and the hawk 
of many yards, and never to our knowle < 
was the flicker one instant too late. 
“The loss of life at such times must be i- 
mense. We were continually finding the bunc! 
of scattered feathers that marked where sc < 
songster had met its end. During the first :* 
days before the heavy flight the cuckoos si- 
fered most severely, but the main body of haci 
seemed to follow the migrating olive-backed t 
gray-cheeked thrushes and they formed < 
staple food supply during the height of 
flight, though we recognized towhees, red-es 
vireos, brown thrashers, chipping sparrows, w< 
pewees, various warblers and catbirds amid M 
debris. 
“In spite of all this, however, most of 1( 
hawks collected had empty stomachs, likely 11 
well fed ones were those that circled high 1 
the air, while the ones that fell to our g 11 
