Our Birds of Prey; or, The Eagles, Hawks, and Owls of Canada

Abstract

SO little is really known respecting the ornithology of Canada that one cannot but welcome with great satisfaction such a substantial addition to our knowledge as has been given by Mr. Vennorin the present work. As a geologist employed on the survey of Canada the author has enjoyed unrivalled opportunities for studying many of the birds in the field, and although, the fulfilment of his duties has prevented him from devoting his entire attention to ornithology, yet he has evidently kept his eyes open, and the work before us embodies the result of thirteen years' observation. It is to be regretted that at present Mr. Vennor has only written on the birds of prey, and it is to be hoped that he will continue his labours on the rest of the birds of Canada, The species themselves included in the present work are twenty-seven in number, and on all these very complete information seems to be given respecting their distribution in the Canadian dominion, including not only a résumé of the hitherto published facts, but giving also a large amount of new information. Excellent accounts of the habits of the birds are added, chiefly from the personal observations of the author himself, and each article concludes with the description of the species in which the colours of the soft parts are always given; this is a feature often omitted by Messrs. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgvvay in their recently-published “History of North American Birds.” Mr. Vennor does not iuclude among the species fully treated of, the Common. Turkey Buzzard (Rhinogryphus aurea), which hardly extends to Canada in its northern range, though it is a regular summer visitant to “the extensive flats near Chatham and Lake St. Clair,” while further to the westward it occurs frequently on the line of the forty-ninth parallel. Of the Barn Owl (Strix flammea), Mr. Vennor says that there is no authentic record of its occurrence in Canada, but we notice in Mr. Bowdler Sharpe's paper on the “Geographical Distribution of Barn Owls,” published in Mr. Rowley's Ornithological Miscellany, that the British Museum contains a specimen from the neighbourhood of Toronto, collected near that city by Mr. James Whitely, who has resided there for some years, and has sent many interesting birds to this country. Other small points might also be alluded to in which we think farther consideration on the author's part desirable, such as the relations between Falco candicans and F. labradorus, Circus cinereus and C. hudsonius, &c. We are not disposed to quarrel with the photographic illustrations to the book, which are excellent specimens of photography, although this mode of llustrating scientific works does not commend itself to our fancy. At any rate, however, a good photograph is better than a bad plate, especially in a work like the present, where the author's chief aim has been to give such a figure as may render the identification of the species more easy to the student, his object being, in his own words, “a work of practical utility, not a mere exhibition of pretty photographs.” As a new worker in the vast field of ornithology we welcome Mr. Vennor, and only trust that many years will not elapse before he gives us a second instalment on the birds of Canada.

Our Birds of Prey; or, The Eagles, Hawks, and Owls of Canada.

Henry G.

Vennor

By With Thirty Photographic Illustrations by W. Notman. 4to, pp. i.—viii., 1—154, plates i.—xxx, (Montreal: Dawson Brothers; London: Sampson Low and Co., 1876.)