MORE ON TIII‘. BIRDS

The bald eagle has returned for the 15th year to the West River

Causeway and his favourite birch tree. ' ' eagle on two occasions and Bob Thompson reports seeing it on

January 23.

Bill Morrell has seen the

Also on January 23, Gerard MacIntyre saw an adult bald eagle at Clarks Creek, Fort Augustus.

Mr. Douglas Piercey of 3 Sunset Drive reports that a flock of 30 Bohemian Waxwings has been using his feeding station since December 23 and Mr. Dick Sterling saw a robin on January 22 in Charlottetown.

— Rosemary Curley

Fish & Wildlife Division

MELANISTIC SHOWSHOE HARES ON P.E.I.

The snowshoe hare (often called a rabbit) is distributed across the Canadian provinces, the Yukon, parts of the Northwest Territories

and in most of the northern United States.

into Newfoundland and Anticosti Island.

It has been introduced

The ability of the snowshoe hare to change color with the seasons is

well recognized.

However,

instances of a color mutant which is

completely black (melanistic) have been recorded, and in such cases the hare remains black year round.

Ralph Bird (1955) has collected records of melanistic hares from

Ontario, Quebec, P.E.I.,Saskatchewan and New York.

In addition, a

melanistic specimen was obtained in Maine (Aldous, 1939), and a specimen from Shelbourne County, Nova Scotia, prepared by Barry Sabean in 1972 is now in the museum collection of Acadia University. At present, the only black hare in the National Museum of Canada Collection was taken in the vicinity of Charlottetown, P.E.I.

The following are further records of melanistic hares from Prince

Edward Island.

Date late May 1970 June 1970 Oct. 12, 1970 Nov. 1970 Jan. 7, 1971 Aug., 1971 Oct., 1971

Winter 1971—72

mid—May, 1972 June 1, 1972 June 15, 1972 mid—May, 1973 June 6, 1974 Summer 1974 Oct. 1, 1974 Jan. 11, 1974 July 1, 1975 Nov. 24, 1975 Nov. 29, 1975 Dec. 2, 1975 Dec. 3, 1975 Dec. 7, 1975 Dec. 10, 1975 Dec. 20, 1975

l 2

2

day apart,

# Seen

1

l

1 (shot) (shot)

1 I

(seen a

one shot)

H

P‘H F4H

F‘HF‘F‘H

(young) (shot)

(young) 1

(shot)

(snared) 1

(shot)

(snared) 1

In some cases the dates are not exact.

Location

Clarks Creek, Ft. Augustus Ft. Augustus

Pisquid

Upton

Pisquid Pond

Georgetown Royalty Little River Rd (near Sailors Hope)

Glenfinnan Pisquid Mooneys Creek Martinvale BaldwinS»Road Glenfinnan Pisquid Pond Harmony Baldwins Road

(Morell River)

Milltown Cross Pisquid Donagh

Village Green Piusville

St. Georges Village Green Lorne Valley

Observer

Daryl Guignion Dan McAskill Dan McAskill John Bain

Art Smith & Randy Dibblee Rosemary Curley

Daryl Guignion

John Bain and Doug Wood John Bain Randy Dibblee D. H. Black John Bain Maurice Coady Percy Horsley Randy Dibblee Art Smith & Clare Birch Reggie Martin Walter Stewart BillBatchilder C. MacKinnon

John Clements Clarence Ryan Employees of

Fish & Wild—

life Div.