Bird life in Labrador

£85
S78

J-NRLF

B 3

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

PRESENTED BY

PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID

BIRD LIFE

IN

LABRADOR

BY
WINFRID A. STEARNS.

COPYRIGHT SECURED.

- QL

PREFACE

THE sketches herewith presented to the public first ap-
peared in the columns of the " American Field," in twenty-
five consecutive numbers, beginning April 26, 1890, and end-
ing October 11 of the same year. They were written out
from my note book, at Amherst, Mass., in the Spring of 1886.
It is now intended to put them into permanent form, to sup-
ply the demands which have been made for them in such con-
dition. The writer has not deemed it necessary to submit
them to any other editorial hands than his own, and the
reader will, therefore, have the opportunity of judging for
himself somewhat of the writer's own style.

WINPRID A. STEARNS.

M354537

INTRODUCTION.

[THE ORIGINAL PREFACE.]

• •'• IN a book, sketch, or series of sketches, one of the last things to be written
— and often one of the last to be printed — is the introduction; Why, then,
it should be so invariably placed first is a question for the causalist. I shall
vary the usual proceedings in such cases, and, writing my introduction last,
shall both print and place it last.

The subject of the present and last number of BIRD LIFE IN LABRADOR
is very briefly stated.

In 1875, the writer made a Summer excursion to Labrador, remaining
there two months, traveling chiefly within a radius of sixty miles southwest
and ten miles northeast of Bonne Esperance. In 1880, he visited the coast
in September and remained until the following September, calling at nearly
every harbor of importance from Mingan to Red Bay. In 1882, a third ex-
ploring party continued the work of the two previous trips, as far as Fox
Harbor, St. Lewis Sound. Other trips to portions of these same grounds
have been made, and much new material gained, but not beyond St. Lewis
Sound, as above mentioned.

When the sketches that have just appeared in the AMERICAN FIELD were
written, after returning from the trip in 1882, I had never seen any account
whatever of the birds of this region, saving from occasional glimpses in odd
volumes of the works of Audubon, and not all of these. I cannot, therefore,
be charged with literary piracy, so often urged upon writers of any particular
subject or region. To prove the above fact, I am prepared to take upon me
the most solemn obligation that can be required of any author. I make this
statement simply as a precautionary measure of self-protection. Some
years after the sheets were wrttten, I added several species to my list upon
other authority than my own, in order to embrace all the then known birds

vni Bird-Life in Labrador.

of the region. I now propose to briefly examine critically the claims of
species from other known sources than my own, to a place in the avi-fauna
of Labrador. Having studied diligently all the sources of information that
could be obtained, I have come to the decision, carefully weighed, that Au-
dubon is both father and son in the history of Labrador birds. That is, he
gave us our first real knowledge of the birds of this region, and few facts
new to science have been added, or old facts corrected, since his time. Even
my own sketches are, in the main, mere reproductions of what he had so
graphically previously given to the world; they could not well be otherwise.
This does not necessarily lay me open to the charge of plagiarism, any more
than it might some other man who wrote of the birds of a region ol which
somebody else had written before him : for nothing is farther from my
thoughts than to try to steal another man's literary labors.
AMHERST, MASS., May, 1886.

Fishing establishment of WM H. WHITELEY, ESQ.,
BONNE ESPERANCE, LABRADOR.

BIRD-LIFE IN LABRADOR.

THE KOBIN

Turdus migratorius. — LINN.

PERHAPS never in all my life have I started upon any task
that was placed before me with so much of expectant pleasure
as that with which I now begin to write out my notes upon the
birds of a region I dreamed about in my childhood, and rev-
eled in in my manhood. Among my first inspirations to seek out
Nature in her own abodes, in my youth, were a parcel of rob-
in's eggs, and an heirloom in the shape of an eider duck's, a
puffin's, and an auk's skin, which had been presents from a
friend to a brother, and which the enemies' bullets of a cruel war
had handed to me. The skins were labeled from u Belle Isle."
How I prized them ! The robin's eggs were from home.
Thus at the age of eight, a mere stripling, I formed the pur-
pose, in my own mind, to study and explore "bird life" from
the one place to the other. Although the whole of the inter-
mediate space has not been gone over, and may never be fully
searched personally, yet I have examined carefully these goals

10 Bird-Life in Labrador.

of mv youthful ambition, and, having shown the public one of
them, in " Xew England Bird Lite/' will now try to give a
very imperfect and inadequate conception of the other in this
little sketch of Labrador bird life. In my boyhood, the robin
was always, or nearly always, the first bird to greet me in the
Spring and the last, saving a few chickadees, woodpeckers,
nuthatches and the like, our regular Winter birds, to leave
in the Fall. I have found him in nearly every corner wherein
I have hunted; and often, when least expecting it, has his fa-
miliar form and note come to me like a message from home.
The first bird then, of which I have to speak, is the robin ;
nearly of equal abundance throughout the extent of North
America, from Labrador to Alaska.

The first time that I saw the robin in J^abrador I was climb-
ing the high hills in the rear of our log cabin, one day in the
Fall of 1881. There was almost nothing astir that day. I had
searched the lowlands without success ; and the derisive titter
of the chickadee, as he would suddenly appear a few feet from
me and as suddenly disappear, after his merry laugh, in the
spruces that spread their dense, matted masses everywhere
around, and the mocking, fiendish croak of the ravens, perch-
ed here or there upon some inaccessible crag, had driven me
to distraction. On, on I climbed. I left the spruces and en-
tered the birches. As I did so, a short, quick cry of alarm,
a glimpse of several plump bodies rushing through the tan-
gled leaves, and, before I could head them off, a flock of rob-
ins gathered themselves just beyond the tree tops, and the next
moment I saw their retreating forms way up the peak above
me, clearing its northern side and disappearing behind the
crest. Thus I first saw the robin in Labrador. I followed
them that day for hours. They always eluded me, and were
as wild as hawks. Over hill and vale the relentless pursner
followed until the shades of evening baffled all efforts, and
warned me of the usclessness of any further attempts fur that
day. I have followed robins many times since that attempt,
have found them on hills and home pastures, wild and tame,

Bird- Life In Labrador. 11

Spring and Fall, though not in Winter, and breeding there as
in the United States, and come to the conclusion that though
not a very common yet by no means an uncommon native, it
is doubtless here as everywhere else as a " resident " and
*' breeds.'7 The specimens I shot were all in light plumage,
often approaching almost to albinism, and apparently lean and
long rather than plump and fat. Their nests were said to be
not uncommon " up the river," and, from the stories of the
small boys, which are not always to be relied upon, yet doubt-
less accurate in this case, built ol mud and dried grasses.

GRAY CHEEKED THRUSH

Turdiis Swawsoni Alicice. — (BD.) COUES.

IN my description of the robin I used the expression "up
the river;" well, "up the river" we went one delightful
day, in the Summer of 1882, boat, oars, guide, and our guns,
the slight breeze proving our only sure protection against the
everlasting black flies, to explore the country. My notes, un-
der the heading of " wood thrush," read : " Certainly heard
this bird repeatedly ; other persons present verified the same ;
10 miles up Esquimaux River, one day late in July." Of this
note a good-natured editor remarked with a sort of humph,
at least it so echoes in my ear : " More like H. alicice (gray-
cheeked thrush), since the wood thrush is not known to occur
even so far north as the southern shores of the Gulf of St.
Lawrence," He was right. The characteristic whistled
" pheugh " sounded right and left that day. I can hear it now
and seem to see the form of one of our number, as he then
bent forward to catch the sound as it came to us through the
dense spruce growth on the shore, when he said : " By Jove j
that was a thrush ; did you hear it?" Of course we all did,
twenty times, and to-day we know that it is " everywhere abun-
dant in the interior," at least as far as we have explored,
and " breeds." This species is distinct from swainsoni, which
it greatly resembles.

12 Bird-Life in Labrador.

STONE CHAT

Saxicola oenanthe. — (L.) BKCHST.

Dr. Elliott Cones secured a single specimen of this extra-
ordinarily rare bird at Henley Harbor, August 25, 1860. It
has not been known to occur in Labrador since, to my know-
ledge. It was said to have been " in company with two
others/' and " in immature plumage, very different from that
of the adult, and excessively fat." It a common European
bird.

RUBY CROWNED KINGLET

Regulus calendula. — (L.) LIGHT.

IN my " Labrador," (p. 85,) under date of Monday, October
11, my notes read : In the afternoon I shot perhaps the most
cunning bird known about these regions, where it is never
common, the ruby-crowned wren. It was flitting about in a
small clump of bushes when I first saw it and it me. I was
then obliged to wait around for over half an hour before I
could again catch sight of and shoot it. It will cunningly crawl
or flit from place to place, and it is a mere question of who
will continue this game of hide-and-seek the longest. It has
been taken several times in Labrador, and in various places
along the coast, so that it is probably a more or less common
visitor if not resident. My manuscript notes are much more
explicit and read : October 11, at Old Fort Island. Much to
my surprise, to-day, I shot one of these birds. He was fl) -
ing about, appearing and disappearing, in the low evergreen
firs and spruces of a little patch of undergrowth. I had
thought that I had detected a slight noise, and listening intent-
ly I heard it again. After nearly fifteen minutes of careful
watching and diligent searching I found the little fellow.
So shy and careful was he that I pursued him fully fifteen
minutes more before I was able to shoot and ascertain what it
Avas. It uttered no note while I was watching it, but crept

Bird-Life in Labrador. 13

about at all times in the shyest and most careful manner. It had
a white patch in front of the eye, and another, smaller one,
behind it, the two almost confluent in a ring; it had the ruby
crown. If a small bird, naturally one of the smallest of the
feathered tribe, would thus keep one upon the watch for over
half an hour of a bunch of less than a dozen spruces, each less
than three feet high, it is no wonder that the rascal so readily
loses himself in the larger growths, where he is doutless more
or less abundant, as to be generally regarded as rare : but per-
haps the little fellow knew that he had an " old hand " after
him, and so, like Dave Crockett's 'coon, came out of his hid-
ing place on purpose to be shot at.

HUDSONIAN CHICKADEE

Parus hudsonicus. — FORST.

SOME of my notes upon this and succeeding species have been
previously transcribed in my larger work, but as the following-
paper will doubtless reach many that the-book will not I trust
they will be none the worse for the repetition. I have found
these little fellows everywhere on island and on mainland that
I have been and their cheerful presence has dec-dee-dee'ed
away approaching blues more than once. I first met them at
Old Fort Island, where they would frequently come and perch
upon the roof of the house, and occasionally fly in at the door-
way and pick up crumbs from the floor ; they were very tame
and would even allow you to catch them without much op-
position. Their flight was rapid, and, being ss small in size,
they could come and go with the suddenness of a shadow, and
one could seldom follow their flight for any distance. They of-
ten fly off in a zigzag series of straight lines, as if uncertain in
which direction to fly, and as often return to their former post,
the roof of the house, as if fully aware that that was their safest
place after all. I have stood in some open spot of ground, not
a retreat near me, and scanned the air everywhere about for a
sign of life in vain, when suddenly a whirr, a dee-dee of deri-

14 Bird- Life in Labrador.

sion or of triumph, and the little fellow had appeared and dis-
appeared without my even having caught a sight of him.
Their favorite resting plaee was on the roofs of houses. The
people of the coast are very fond of them and call them wood-
peckers. They would frequently caution me with u now
don't you go and shoot my little woodpeckers." I found them
all about the islands among the low, stunted growths of fir
and spruce. If I pretended to watch them they would hide in
the evergreen, not even chirping, and remain there sometimes
for nearly an hour, while I walked about softly and peered
around to se * them — they running or creeping out of sight
or remaining perfectly still behind some bough until forced
to fly. Sometimes they would give me the slip entirely, and
otten the most successfully when there was apparently the
least chance of their escape without detection. They were on
the mainland in low growths, and in the woods when no other
apparent living creature was about ; in midday ; at early morn
or late evening. They were everywhere, where you least ex-
pected to see them, and when you were looking for them not
one could be found, search high or low. Veritable " Brown-
ies/7 always around, when lo ! in a second, the places that
teemed with them were as silent and deserted as the grave.
In my residence on the coast 1 grew very fond of these little
fellows. If at times they were shy and retreating, they as of-
ten displayed the inquisitive side of their nature. In wander-
ing listlessly about, with no apparent object but to kill time,
we have passed most delightful hours together. If in the heat
of midday or the cool of the evening I have sought me out a
convenient and sheltered retreat, I had not long to wait be-
fore several would appear. We will remain still for a mo-
ment and see what they will do. At length one, bolder than
the rest, jumps upon a sprig of spruce \vithin five feet of my
body. As the bough bends and tilts the little fellow to and
fro, which operation he appears to love amazingly, he balances
himself deftly, peers up and down and around cautiously, then
launches into a most furious tirade of dee-dee-dee's that wake

Bird- Life in Labrador. 15

the echoes in the old wood, and seems a signal of safety and
a call for gathering for every chickadee within twenty yards
around. Then they begin to gather. Every bush swarms
with them. I remain still, and the cautious little fellows hop
nearer and nearer. If I move they are off; if I remain
perfectly still they hop around and over me without the
slightest hesitation. My large boots seem the object of great-
est curiosity to them, and more than once several good-
si/ed overflow meetings apparently took them for a text and
preached with great success, each bird in his turn, then all to-
gether, upon this topic alone. At last, and somewhat uncon-
sciously, one toe moves several inches, when whist ! the panic
that ensues is fearful and the meeting, overflows and all, breaks
up in an instant. A whish of many wings, a vindictive ee-
ee-ee, growing fainter and fainter, then ceasing altogether,
and I am postively alone. Did I wait ten minutes they would
all comeback : but my attention is called in another direction,
as will presently appear. The Hudsonian titmouse breeds in
the interior, all up and down the coast, where it prefers the
tangled undergrowth so difficult of access. Its note is
wheezed and not a clear pronounced dee, repeated several
times.

SHORE LARK HORNED LARK

Eremophila alpestris. — (L.) BOIE.

THE bird that has detracted our attention from the group
of diminutive curiosity seekers, flies by with a wild flight far
up in the sky above, uttering a wild, querulous whistle as he
passes, and is immediately lost in the distance. It is the shore
or horned lark ; the people here call it the skylark. We will
turn to the note-book again ; here is the record : Monday, Oc-
tober 1 1. This morning I shot several specimens of the horn-
ed lark and noted the extent of the pinkish color on the wing
coverts, rump, and neck, usual in the Spring specimens of high
Eastern regions. My long stay upon the coast made me quite

16 Bird-Life in Labrador.

familiar with this beautiful songster and characteristic bird of
the region, which is abundant all along the north shores of the
St. Lawrence from Quebec to Bell Isle. At Green Island,
in the liiver St. Lawrence, I found the lark quite common.
At that time it was rather tame, and could be seen on the low
flats of the island hopping about and feeding in close company
with the sandpipers. They were all single birds and not flocks.
I saw them all the Fall at Old Fort Island, both alone and in
large flocks, always more or less wild. I would often see them
flying very high in the air, and uttering their peculiar quer-
ulous whistling notes; sometimes flying quite low and some-
what irregularly, but uttering their notes at all times while on
the wing. Though common everywhere, they seemed to lead
a sort of wild, solitary life that comported well with the wild,
solitary region in which they dwelt; they preferred the plains,
fields, and rocky knolls away from houses where they would
hop about in twos or threes, or small flocks, picking up their
food; occasionally they would perch on the tops of knolls as if
to reconnoiter, then retire and go to feeding again as if satisfied
that no enemy was near ; they are very quick and active in their
movements, and always wild rather than tame save in the late
Summer, when the parents and young together will feed about
the door-yards as familiarly as if never wild. This period
usually lasts a month or six weeks and then all are off together,
as wild as ever. They breed abundantly everywhere, often a
few yards from the houses as well as in the large meadow lands
miles from any habitation. Everywhere you go in Labrador
you will meet with the lark. I saw them often on the shore,
and feeding on the kelp in company with the white-rumped
sandpiper, but never mingling with them as far as I could see.
As their brown color corresponds so well with the color of
the ground, it was often hard to detect them until a few shrill
whistles and a hurried flight announced their flushing a short
distance ahead. Several that I shot were really quite re-
markable for the amount of pink upon them. At times large
flocks fly over the island high up in the air, while one of these

Bird- Life in Labrador. 17

"Bocks once alighted upon the island, where their extreme
wildness was something remarkable. One can hardly say
enough of this most beautiful songster and most charming
little fellow, who chooses the bare ground for his nest of
four ashy-peppered eggs, and enlivens the long days with a
fresh and " clean-cut " song that, heard at early morn or in the
evening, would almost induce one to believe the bird inspired.
Often on a clear, crisp morning have I seen the lark ascend
by a series of spirals to an immense height ; then, remaining on
almost stationary wing, carol forth such a thrilling warble that
it seemed more like the chant of a spirit than the song of a bird*

YELLOW-HUMPED WARBLER

Dendrosca coronota. — - (L.) GRAY.

THIS little fellow scarcely deserves even a good-natured men-
tion. As if afraid of the coast and the people on it, he sought
the interior" up river" and there disported among low spruces
and tangled evergreens. As we sailed down this really beau-
tiful Esquimaux or St. Paul's River, from ten miles in the
interior, the prospects were everywhere charming, and we
enjoyed ourselves to the fullest extent* On the shore, a few
feet from us, we could see and hear the yellow-rumps. It is
a day in the latter part of July, yellow-rumps everywhere
abundant ; inference : common Summer resident, breeds; but
this little fellow is fond of society, for all he seeks and remains
in the interior, so we give him a neighborly companion whose
rather shy, stay-at-home disposition agees well with the un-
certain one of the present species*

BLACK-POLL WARBLER

Dendrosca striata. — (FoRST.) BD.

So far as I ascertained the black-poll warbler was not so ex-
clusively an interior bird as was the yellow-rump. I found it
equally abundant in Summer in the thicket, a few rods from

18 Bird-Life in Labrador.

the coast, and up the river ten miles and beyond. It appear-
ed to breed in both plaees. I saw birds in every stage of plu-
mage from the young to the adult. They appeared quite so-
cial in their habits, many, both old and young, disporting
themselves and feeding among the alder and other thickets, not
at all shy. Perhaps they were individual broods ; at least they
appeared to be such. They were charmingly social little fel-
lows, at any rate, and ate and talked coutinally, while their
choice of the smaller insects showed that they were as dainty
as comely, and so clever that no amount of searching revealed
the treasure of nest and eggs which must often have been close

bv us.

MARYLAND YELLOW THROAT

Geothlypis triehas. — (L.) CAB.

MY record for this bird reads : May 26, at Xatashquan, I
saw a single specimen which appeared several times, dis-
appearing in the underbrush at the right. I have no doubt
but that this bird is more or less common all along the north
shore of the St. Lawrence. Though this is not Labrador, it
is so near it that the species doubtless strays off occasionally
beyond the boundary line. Its habits here appeared similar
to those of its United States7 neighbors.

GOLDEN-CROWNED THRUSH OVEN BIRD

Siurus auricapillus. — (L.) Sw.

STRAXGE as it may appear, both this bird and its neighbor
appear in my list as not uncommon in the interior. Breeds. I
have searched every available avenue for a note upon either of
these species. I feel quite sure that they do not appear there
without good and sufficient reason, and so let them remain,
trusting to time to verify the statement.

WATER THRUSH

Siurus ncevius. — (BoDD.) COUES.

NOT uncommon in the interior. Breeds.

Bird- Life. In Labrabor* 19

AMERICAN PIPIT TITLARK

Antkas ludovieiawM. — LIGHT.

IT was my good fortune, while on the Labrador coast, to
become perhaps more intimately acquainted with this than with
any other land bird with which I came in contact. Though my
notes on this species have previously appeared in the Ameri-
can Field, under date of January 7, 1882, I repeat them here,
although they are now the same as borrowed matter. The
titlark is an abundant Summer resident, and breeds all along
the coast of Labrador from Mingan to Red Bay, a distance of
over five hundred miles, and is everywhere a familiar, well-
known, and pleasing songster. I first became acquainted with
it as an abundant, or at least more than common, resident at
both Old Fort and Bonne Esperance Islands. These two
places are not more than eight miles apart, and I then thought
it probable that all of the islands about that part of the coast
were equally abundant breeding places, as I have found since
that they are. On May 7th I started on a trip up the coast)
and arrived at Mingan on the 29th ; the next day I saw the
titlark for the first time, and afterward I found it on nearly
all of the islands and places visited. Being absent during the
egging season, I missed the eggs and nests, though I am in-
formed that it breeds abundantly, and the boys and people
along the coast everywhere recognized the bird and said the
same. The name by which the pipit is known in Labrador is
that of wagtail, the spotted sandpiper being the only other bird
that I have seen that dips its tail and is to be found here ; this
latter has the name of the "crooked-winged bird/' I could
find no other bird that had a similar name of wagtail. The
first specimen I shot was a young bird, and, after I became
familiar with the species, I would often spend hours in watch-
ing the bird as it stood in some obscure corner of the yard
pluming itself and resting, or slowly walking from place to
place before finally taking wing. The young bird seems much
larger than the adult, if not by actual measurement really so.

20 Bird-Life in Labrador.

I have often mistaken it for the young of the horned lark,
which at a little distance it resembles ; but a close investiga-
tion would invariably detect the difference. Among others
the shore lark hops while the pipit walks. It was impossible
to mistake the full-grown bird, whose sleek, cunning appear-
ance, as you come near it, strikes you at once. It is here call-
ed the wagtail, and possesses that peculiarity of so few of our
birds of dipping and waving the tail, whence the name. On
alighting, the bird immediately begins this movement, as if to
secure a proper balance or equilibrium. The movement is gen-
erally a dipping of the whole hind part of the body, either straight
up and down or diagonally, so it often thus gives the appearance
of a waving of the tail from side to side ; this latter motion I
have never seen the bird execute. After firmly balancing
himself the waving motion ceases, and the bird sits for a time
with the tail pointing downward in a straight line with the
rest of the body. I have carefully watched these movements,
time and again, and am thoroughly convinced that this wagging
motion is simply a means of acquiring a normal position of the
body, and due, perhaps, to some peculiarity ia the structure
of the body itself. (I have never seen the bird hold the tail
downward at a slight angle with the body, as do most flycatch-
ers and kindred species.) The head is inclined upward and
the neck drawn in. After a short rest the bird will become
sprightly again and prepare to fly off. I have sometimes seen
the bird dip its tail without moving the rest of the body, though
rarely. It is at all times very tame, both young and old birds
allowing me to often approach within a few feet of them, during
the Summer season. Its walking motion is a rather short step,
and while busy picking up food it looks about sharply, here and
there, prepared to fly away at a second's notice, but rarely do-
ing so. Its food is insects of the coleopterous order, judging
from the legs, sheaths, and antenna?, of quite a number whose
gizzards I examined. The old bird is very cunning, shy, and
mouse-like. On approaching it it runs or walks to some shel-
tered tuft of grass or any concealment, and, crouching, draws

Bird-Life m Labrador. "21

an and down its head, lowers its tail, then elevates somewhat
ithe center of the back, and either remains perfectly still or
•creeps away as it seems to -decide from the apparent danger of
the situation, I have seen it remain still in this position the
better part of half an hour, and until I was thoroughly tired
waiting. If I moved the bird would then fly off with a wild,
irregular, low but slowly-rising flight, tipping from side to
side as do many of the sandpipers. When the flight is for a
short distance only it seems to be rather undulating, I have
often seen an old bird rise in a series of irregular spirals to quite
a height, when it would seems to flutter or sustain itself by a
series of trembling fl utterings, only to soon dart off to the right
or to the left and descend as if to alight, but, instead of so doing,
to continue its flutterings and presently dart off in some new
direction. Conceiving, at first, that this might be owing to
some bewilderment, I arose from thecrouching position that I
had assumed upon first flushing the bird. All the time I was
standing the bird continued these wild, irregular movements;
almost ttie moment I again crouched the bird descended and
alighted. I tried the same experiment repeatedly, with the
same results. The longer I remain standing the more irregular
were the bird's movements in the air directly after being flushed,
while if I crouched at the instant of flushing, it immediately
alighted at a short distance from its former position. While
performing these gyrations the pipit seldom utters any note,
excepting occasionally a sound which approaches more nearly
to an attempt to whistle, in a medium but not too shrill key,
the word weep, or weep-weep ; this is repeated once, twice, or
even three times in rather slow succession. The same note is
uttered as the bird flies about from place to place, but generally,
so far as my observation goes, it picks up its food in silence*
The young men and boys generally, along the coast, recognized
the bird when I showed it them, and said that "it builds its nest
in some low tree, against the trunk or some large, stout limb ;
it is made of mud, plastered with grasses much like that of a
robin's," and that the eggs are " smaller than any other egg we

*L'l Bird-Life in

ever saw." I give the above simply for what it fs worth, vritFf-
out comment. I offered a small fortune, in the eves of the
Labradorian, for a nest and eggs, or simply a nest, but could
not obtain them as the season was too far advanced. In some
localities I have counted pipits by the do/en, walking- about or
feeding with apparent unconcern within as many yards of my
Very feet. The pipit breeds abundantly aril along the Labrador
coast, but seldom occurs in Summer far south of the Canada line.

GREEN BLACK-CAPPED FLYCATCHING
WARBLER

Wllsonia pmilla. — (WlLS.) BP,

I have described, rather briefly, the habits of two of the na-
tive warblers of Labrador, which eke out a miserable existence
In this barren land, and, as " misery loves company," as the
old adage tells us., we will now try to do justice to the company,,
in the shape of the third and last of the family. It is on that
same trip " up the river " in which we discovered the yellow-
I'tunp and the black-poll that, most unexpectedly, a sleek little
fellow, in a yellow dress, saving a black cap, appeared upon the
top twig of a small tree, close by the river's side, and caroled
forth a note of welcome, such as we had repeatedly heard while
descending the stream in our boat, though we had not before-
seen the author thereof. Now he steps plainly out upon the
branch and utters his carol and immediately, without doubt
being pressed with hunger after his effusive eloquence, disap-
pears behind the boughs and begins a most active search among
the top twigs for some favorite morsel with which to satisfy his
appetite. I am strongly of the opinion that this little fellow
uttered several well-marked notes upon the occasion of this hunt,
probably to express his disgust at not finding what he want-
ed ; yet the notes might have proceeded from some other
member of the bird tribe, whose patience had been sorely
tried about something which he did not care to talk much of
in such a public place. At any rate, our little black-capped

Bird- Life in Labrador. "23

gentleman or lady, whichever it might have been, did not seem
to lay it especially to heart, for he or she soon appeared again,
and, with a nod of recognition, treated us to some more music,
We had a charming acquaintance with this little fellow, brief
as it was, for suddenly a tall, lank individual, evid-entlya huge
animal from some Western prairie, arose quite near to us, raised
gently a most murderous-looking weapon until it reached quite
to his shoulder, when, with a crash like thunder and a flash
like lightning, the little black-cap whirled from his perch to
the ground, a Weeding corpse. The community were in arms
in an instant, and a volley of indignation resounded from the
woods in several directions, while, from the opposite side of the
river, several distinct pheughs seemed to hint at some direful
revenge. We gathered up the corpse tenderly and laid it upon
the bow of our boat and slowly continued our downward
journey toward the mouth of the river. We saw relatives of
this little black-cap several times on the coast, first and last,
and they always had a great deal to say, when we saw them,
about something, though we could not understand their tongue,
though it seemed to be a sort of mongrel French, and something
about residing and building, if people would only let them alone,

PINE GROSBEAK

Pinicola enucleator. — (L.) CAB,

THE name I heard applied to this bird almost universally
wherever I went was that of "spruce bird/7 probably from
the fact of its frequenting so characteristically the spruce
growths everywhere in the interior, upon the buds of which it
doubtless feeds almost exclusively. I found it the last of
November and in December in the wood about Old Fort Bay,
singly and in flocks, but wild as larks. Several large flocks
were seen a little way up the river, in the interior, where they
appear to be much more common. One can usually see plenty
of single birds, though very wild, in any ordinary day's
hunt, " inside," as the natives call the mainland in distinction

24 Bird-Life in Labrador.

from " outside," their Summer " fishing quarters/*' the forrrrcf
being their Winter quarters. It seemed very strange to me that,
oeing in their evident home, I found rare, or missed entirely, so-
many of the usual Winter birds of the United States. I saw
neither of the cross-bills ; nof-the siskin or pine linnet ; nor the
goldfinch. I did, one day, pursue for a long distance a bird
tvhich I took for a shrike but wliich might have been only a
poor, good-for-nothing whisky jack. No bluebird, though
different individuals described to me a bird " all blue"; no-
nuthatch; no waxwing; and but one blackbird. Thus, though
most diligent search was made, few characteristic Winter birds
were discovered in what ought to have been their paradise ; yet
many of them doubtless occur. I would not try another Win-
ter in those regions for all the birds there twice over. Cold,
dreary, uninviting abode of starving humanity, fit only for
Indians and outcasts, and poor enough at that ; yet even there
may be found warm hearts and cozy homes, in spite of the
nightly thirty degrees below. I could at least wish them better
food and more comfortable quarters,

RED POLL LIHTNET

JEgiothus linaria. — (L.) CAB.

POOR little " aider birds!" They look cold, all huddled
up there, twenty or thirty of th^in, in every possible position,
In that clump of alders. They look as if grown to the limbs
on which the}' perch, a part and parcel of the very twigs on
which they rest, a sort of alder bud as well as alder bird.
Some of them are trying to eat, though they look as if their
food made them feel half sick. Others have given up the
idea of eating entirely, to all appearances, and are standing
with ruffled-up feathers, their heads drawn far into the down
of their breast, feeling much as I imagine the natives feel
1vhen, after a poor fishery, they look at a three-months7 sup-
ply of provisions that they must make last six months of fierce
Winter weather. Of a truth they look cold, and their toes

Bird-Life in Labrador. 25

look cold. Some disrespectful urchin, suddenly and unbidden,
remarks, " Which, the natives or the birds ? " and I, as sudden-
ly, and somewhat fiercely, reply : (k Both, unreservedly both ? "
But, while we have been talking, some of the birds have
hopped down to a half-frozen and half- snow-in little brooklet,
just beneath their perch, to drink ; something has frightened
them ! A few mournful little peeps escape their throats, and
whisk ! a whirr, and off they go, piping their notes to the
modulations of their flight until lost to sight, very likely to
return, within half an hour, to the very same or some neighbor-
ing spot to feed again. As I have a few notes in my book upon
this species, and they may be of interest to some one, I will
transcribe them here : October 28, Old Fort Bay. I have
seen several flocks of alder birds or red-polls to-day. One
small one flying about the spruces near the lake, and several
large ones about the alders; they all seemed rather tame ex-
cept while flying at a great distance overhead, when they re-
peatedly uttered their faint, piping notes. It was often near-
ly or quite impossible to tell in what direction they were fly-
ing, as the notes seemed to re-echo, as some birds do, from
false directions. In their flight the birds of each flock would
keep close together, seldom spreading or straggling along as
some species do. For two weeks I found them nearly every*
where I went, in low alder growths, on the tops of high hills,
and in woody dells ; along the coast, and inland. In feeding,
they would hang on the limbs in all sorts of positions, head
downward, and in every conceivable manner, often reaching
upward or downward, stretching their necks and whole bodies
to pick some inviting tidbit far above or far below them.
Often several perch together on a single limb, bending it
until it tips them all off, forcing them to take wing ; but they
quickly alight near by or in the same place and are soon at
their work again. They are usually very busy little fellows,
not easily frightened, but when one takes the alarm and flies
they all follow. I shot a great many and saw a great many
of the linnets very near to me, and as far as I could ascertain

26 Bird-Life in Labrador.

they all were in a similar state of plumage at this time ; the
rump being quite light-colored and streaked ; the red a small,
restricted patch on the crown of the head ; the black a small
patch at the base of the bill, deepening as it approached the
bill. After the ground was fairly covered with snow I saw
them no more. I took a specimen in full-grown Summer plu-
mage, at the same place, July 20th. It breeds all along the
coast.

SNOW BUNTING

Plectrophanes nit-alls. — (L.) MEY.

" An ! Xow for a potpie ! " exclaimed my companion
smacking his lips, as a large nock of these birds swept by us,
one noon just after dinner and just as we were preparing to
stalk, Indian fashion, a huge white owl that sat like a dainty
snowcap upon the peak of a hill about half a mile away.
" Potpie be hanged ! " cried the leader of the party and pres-
ent writer, " while that old white owl sits blinking defiance
into our very gun barrels." But my companion's mouth had
tasted game and the old owl was laughing at us, for he sud-
denly spread his wings and flew off, leaving us nothing in view
but this same wave of down and brown feeding not far away
from us and just across the " tickle." This was in early Spring,
and on one of the outside islands. The birds had been more
or less common inland during the AVinter months, but gener-
ally singly or in twos and threes, flying wild or alighting on
the tall tree tops far out of gunshot. " They are as tame as
larks now," said my companion, "and we catch them in traps
and snares ; they make splendid potpies." So off we started
on this potpie hunt, and were soon rowing across the narrow
pass. In five minutes we were up with the buntings and had
begun the slaughter. There had been a light fall of snow the
night before, just enough to re-cover the ground, leaving only
the tops of the seed-bearing grasses above its surface. There,
in full sight, on the flats and open pasture grounds, this flock

Bird-Life in Labrador. 27

of a hundred or more hungry birds were hopping about in all
directions, busily feeding and not a bit alarmed at the approach
of two strange gentlemen of the hunter's persuasion, while
they fairly poo-hooed among themselves at the very idea that
those two long, inanimate-looking sticks they carried could do
them any harm. But those same two gentlemen walked care-
fully up to the buntings, singled out their victims, and fired ;
result, five dead birds. The flock hustled off a few rods, as
much as to say, " there, now, get away with you," and began
feeding again. Once more the two gentlemen walked carefully
within range and then fired ; result, three more dead birds.
This time the flock swept past the hunters and landed as far
the other side of them, as if prompted by a sudden desire to
entirely outflank the enemy. The third time the birds seemed
more wary and of a consequence did exactly the wrong thing
for them, huddling closer together to consult about the matter.
A grand bang, and the field was covered with bodies, while the
meeting broke up and its members were seen hurrying beyond
the hill towards the left. Again, result, eight birds shot on the
ground, three on the wing. Thus the hunters followed up the
flock bagging a fair potpie. Oh ! how fat the birds were. We
saw the buntings many times after this grand massacre ; some-
times they were few and wild, sometimes many and tame.
Sometimes they alighted, and sometimes they havered about
and above on the wing thus presenting most beautiful targets
for gun practice. But in a few weeks, as soon as the snow was
off the ground for good, they were all gone, and none did we
see until the returning fall. My companion told me that the
boys often follow them about and kill them with stones, they
are so tame.

LAPLAND LONGSPUR

Centrophanes lapponicus. — (L.) KAUP.

THIS species is found singly or in twos and threes, either
alone or in company with flocks of snow buntings, everywhere

28 Bird-Life in Labrador.

along the coast, ever a characteristic but never a common bird,
so far as I could discover. I saw several specimens in various
houses where I visited, though I shot but one myself while on
the coast. It was taken October 14, at Old Fort Island. It
was feeding at dusk near the kelp on the shore and with sev-
eral other birds, probably of the same species. They were very
•wild, and I watched a long while and pursued them sev-
eral times before finally capturing one. It was quite wild.
The flight and notes so deceived me at first that I thought
them shore larks. The development of the hind claw of this
bird, from which it receives its name, is something remarkable,
it often reaching three-fourths of an inch and over in length.
I doubt if it occurs in Summer.

SAVANNA SPARROW

Passerculus savana. — (WiLS.) BP.

AND now we come to the characteristic "chip-bird" of Lab-
rador as well as of the whole " Xorth shore," everywhere com-
mon and a resident, excepting in Winter, and breeding in
abundance with its nest in every dooryard and under every
clump and bush of the field, or every bunch of sedges along
the shore. At all times and in all weathers you can count
them by the scores in sight of the dooryard, and about every
field and hedge on island or mainland along the coast. It is;
perhaps, the most abundant of all the small laud birds that in-
habit these regions. It is a tame and familiar little fellow,
and feeds without fear about the doorsteps and in the door-
yard, building its nest, laying its eggs, and rearing its young
often in grassy clumps not two rods from the house. They
are common all over the islands and on the mainland, and
their song is a well-know attraction to a native of the place.
So reads the note book, thus far confirming all that has been
said in the previous paragraph, and which was written entirely
from memory ; and what further does it say ? I shot a good
many of them and found them displaying an unusually decid-

Bird-Life in "Labrador* "2$

43$ sliatle of plumage, with the dark and white colors plainly
trnarked. There was very little yellow about the head and eye
.•and of some twenty specimens none at all on the wing shoul-
ders. I shot, one day, four of these birds, none of which luui
;a particle of yellow upon them anywhere that I could distin-
guish ; a small tuft of white feathers at the base of the pri-
oiary coverts of the shoulder give the appearance of a white
^edging in. the place of the usual yellow. The birds were all
remarkably full in coloration, and decided in plumage ; the
white very clear, the dark inverted arrow points quite distinct-,
as were also the grayish and buif edgings everywhere. One
specimen alone had the buify suffusion covering the breast*
I cannot say that the rule holds good constantly, but in some
thirty specimens the male bad the yellow on the wing shoul-
der, while the female and young-of-the-year of either sex had
white in that place. The flight of this little fellow is short,
<quick, and irregular ; he is wonderfully spry and will appear
and disappear so quickly that you can scarcely follow him ;
then he is so cunning that when once he has made up his mind
to play at hide-and-seek with you you might as well give up
attempting to deceive him, for you will utterly fail in ninety-
nine cases out of every hundred. He will greet you with a
few chirps of surprise from the summit of some ridge of rocks,
drop behind them, and appear so suddenly and unexpectedly
in some place rods away that you will think it is another bird,
Its ordinary notes are a few faint chirps, but at times, especi-
ally in early Spring or at night and morning, it will greet you
with such a volume of song as to hold you entranced for many
minutes at a time. It sometimes, at dusk, imitates somewhat
the habits of the sandpipers, and feeds on and among the kelp
along the shore in company with them, though I never saw
more than two or three together at such a time in one place*

SNOW BIRD

Junco hyemalis. — (L.) ScL.

WITH regard to this species I am in great doubt as to just

W Bird-Life m Labrador:

what to say. I found it in April and in October on both is-
land and mainland ; very rare on the former, occasional on
the latter. Now, while it is thus found in its migrations I
did not see it in Summer, though I had ample opportunities'
and searched carefully in localities where it would seem al-
most certain to reside. They must indeed have u kept entire-
ly in the thick woods/' and been " rather tiniid " to have thus
eluded me, yet Dr. Elliott Coues, who visited the coast in the
Summer of 1890, found them thus and added that "it is not'
so abundant as might be expected in Labrador, one of its
breeding regions. From the fact that I was not in a suitable
locality, I did not observe it until the latter part of July, at
which time it was in small companies, the old and the young;
associating together.77

TREE SPARROW

Spizella montieola, — (Gn,) BD,

HAD I been considering this and the foregoing species-
faunally speaking, I should have said of the former, not a
resident but migrant; of this, resident, except during Winter,,
and breeds, I can find no record of this little fellow as a
breeder here, though it must pass the Summer in this its-
usual limits. I saw numbers of them inland October 12, but
a week or so later not one of them was to be seen anywhere :
they must have migrated in a mass. They were very tame,,
and played in and about the alder shrubbery much as they do
in the States. I did not see the two species in company, and
do not know whether they associate together here as they do
at home,

WHITE-THROATED SPARROW
PEABODY BIRD

Zonotrichia albicollis. — (G>r.) BP.

EVERYWHERE I went in Labrador I was greeted with the
shrill, sprightly, and cheering little tcc-dee-dee pea-body pea-

Hi r<l- Life in Labrador. >31

foody pea-body of the white -limited sparrow. It is a charac-
teristic feature, especially of lower Labrador. The tee being
uttered several tones lower than the other notes, which are all
•on' the same key. Sometimes tlvc pea-body is repeated only
twice, and rarely a single time. I was much struck by this
latter iact, as a curious circumstance impressed it upon my
memory. I was walking through the brush just back of the
-station at Mingan, at dusk, one evening. The air was full of
the melody of this little songster, when suddenly I noticed, I
•cannot tell why as there was certainly nothing in the note to
-cause one to be suspicious, a rather shrill yet mellow tee-dee^
dee pea-body i>ea-body7 uttered just beyond the thicket at my
right. The pea-body was repeated but twice, whereas it is
usually though not always repeated three times. The call
was immediately responded to by the same notes with the
word sounded but once. This unusual c<M set me to think-
ing, so much so that, though not positive, I am very strongly
of the impression that the call was repeated in exactly the re-
verse order. The next instant an Indian stepped out in each
of the directions whence the calls had proceeded and, ap-
proaching each other, walked slowly towards the station. I
had unconsciously detected one of the Indian means of attract-
ing the attention of their fellows without discovery to them-
selves. It was a lesson in woodcraft to me that I have never
forgotten. I found this charming little fellow everywhere I
went all along the coast, though never quite so common as its
intimate friend the white-crown. They were always together
in sedge, field, thicket, and wood. In the Spring, at morning
and at evening, they trilled forth their lay in common, acd
sometimes so closely together that one could barely distin-
guish from which bird each note came. The white-throat
is common everywhere and breeds. It seems to select situa-
tions in which to place its nest more remote from habitations
than does the white-crowned, which rears its young in cozy
nests often a few rods only from the dooryards of the houses.
I shot my first specimen at Old Fort Island, October 6. I

$*£ Bird-Life in LaBrador.

saw others at the same time ; they were flying about rmrcfo
like and in company with the savanna sparrows, among the'
.low evergreens on the island. They, like many others of the-
sparrow tribe, crept about so slyly in and out of the bushes,,
now appearing on the top twigs to chant a few feeble notes,,
then disappearing and rattling through the closely wo verb
twigs- and branches, or creeping between them, that one could;
scarcely get a moment's- sight of them. When wounded their
caution was doubled,. They would wedge themselves into the
smallest corners, under leavesr twigs, and roots, into holes oii"
the ground, anywhere to escape observation,, their brown
backs, so near the color of the decaying foliage, and small;
size, greatly aiding them-. If winged- in open ground they
would run so swiftly as almost to defy pursuit. Sometimes-
the little fellow had a way of appearing suddenly on the top-
most twig of some bush and straightening himself out so that
he looked as much a part of the twig as- the top to a mullein
stalk or the pod of a milkweed. On the North shore, where*
there were trees of any size, they frequently would alight on
some high branch and so ruffle up their feathers as to look al-
most as- large as a robin. They were very tamer but chase
them through the brush and they would at once become soj
silent, active, and shy that the longer you followed them the
more you became convinced of the uselessness- of the attempt ;
yet return to som-e convenient situation,, sit down quietly and
wait, and soon twenty would appear where you searched in
vain for one only a moment before. On the shores of Belle
Isle Straits- this species is much less common than its next
neighbor,

WHITE CROWNED SPARROW

Zonotrichia leueophrys. — (FoEST.) Sw,

As' the white-throat is one of the characteristic birds of the
North shore of the St. Lawrence, so is the white-crowned one
of the characteristic birds of Labrador, at least to Belle Isle.

Bird- Life in Labrador. 33

It is a tamer and more domestic bird than the white-throat
and breeds everywhere in meadow, field, and dooryard. In
Summer it is very tame, and, with its young, feeds about the
dooryards of the houses in a most familiar and charming man-
ner. Even while you are standing quite near them and
closely watching their habits, one of them, not in the least
alarmed at your presence, mounts a sprig of Labrador tea and
chants forth a very pleasing and homely little note that makes
you feel happy in spite of yourself. He is perfectly self-pos-
sessed, is this little fellow, and seems to feel perfectly sure
that you will not oifer harm either to him or his little brood
that are feeding close by. His song is the reverse of that of
his neighbor, the white-throat, on that twig yonder toward
the woods, and he repeats it loud and clear, then soft and
mellow ; this wakes two or three others who respond from va-
rious quarters near by and not half a dozen yards away»
Meanwhile the female and young hop about, busily feeding,
running in and out of the piles of old lumber and logs of
wood on the lawn, even picking up crumbs and pieces that
have been thrown out of the window to the dogs. The notes
are pce-deepea~body, the pee being two notes higher than the
rest of the song. I have seen young birds with brown on the
top of head, grayish in place of white, and speckled breast ; in
fact in all plumages from the nest to the adult bird, and watch-
ed them grow from one to the other. In the Fall and perhaps
early Spring tne birds are much less tame than at any other
time of the year. They retire to the unfrequented parts of the
coast somewhat back from the shore, and are shy and even al-
most wild. They sing comparatively little, and if they find
that you are watching them will disappear in the shrubbery al-
most instantly and you are liable not to see them at all again.
They apparently begin to be scarce and shy as soon as the
breeding season is over.

FOX COLORED SPARROW

Passerella iliaca. — (MERE.) Sw.

THIS charming little songster is the far-famed Canadian

34 Bird-Life in Labrador.

" russingel," or red singer : red thrush as some like better. I
found it all up and down the coast, though more common and
even abundant at the extreme points. A most beautiful little
scene comes to my recollection whenever I see or hear the
" russingel " ; it is pictured in a very short sentence in my note
book, and the event occurred at Red Bay : We entered Red
Bay of a Sunday. I shall never forget the clear, beautiful,
varying shades of green on the slopes, and the dark outlines
of the houses, as the sun sank behind the Western hills,
overshadowing them for an instant, the first night of our en-
trance into this charming little harbor. We could see the peo-
ple all along the shore, wending their way to church ; while
in place of the well-known music of the church bells, the rob-
ins, here equally abundant as at home, and the " russingels,"
or fox sparrows, sent forth a perfect melody of harmony that
accorded well with the scene. The first of these birds that I
succeeded in obtaining was from a small flock of four or five
that had alighted upon the ridge-pole of the house on one of
the islands where I was staying. That was on May 2d. It
sings at morning and evening, and in places where it is abund-
ant is found everywhere in the dells and low growths of the
lowlands. It may breed, but of this I am unable to speak
positively. On the lower North shore region, about Natash-
quan and Mingan, the fox-sparrow is very common and its
habits are much the same as in the States. It prefers the
scrubby, leafless bushes, and leaf-strewn ground of dry or moist
places, in which to rush about and play at a sort of aviarian
tag, to all appearances much to their own satisfaction.

BUSTY BLACKBIRD BUSTY GRACKLE

Scolecophagus ferrugineua. — (GM.) S\v.

MY first acquaintance with this species was on September
'24th, while we were lying befogged just off St. Augustine,
when a pigeon hawk, a small owl, probably the scops asio or
screech owl, and one of these birds, each at different times,

Bird-Life in Labrador. 35

came and lit upon the rigging of our vessel. The blackbird
was very tame, and as we offered it no violence it remained
some time with us. I afterward found that this bird had a
Summer breeding range all along the coast here, at least as
far as L'Anse au Loupe, at which place it was a resident.
Mr. Fred Davis informed me that the bird occasionally built
its nest in his woodpile — the people there are obliged to cut
enough wood at one time to last the year around ; thus there
is always more or less of a pile about in the Summer season —
and the boys call it quite common there. This, I believe, is
the only species of blackbird that regularly remains so far North
to breed. The rusty blackbird, as you remember, is generally
regarded as an unsocial and retiring bird ; here it is the re-
verse, and its nest is not unlike that of a small robin with
many sticks outside, and its eggs about three or four, bluish-
white with spots and dashes of light brown. It feeds upon
the seeds of various plants and a few insects. Strange to say,
they are, at various places along the coast, frequently kept as
cage birds ; and their cunning, and power of mimicry of song,
is something quite remarkable.

RAVEN

Corvus corax. — L.

THE raven is a common resident, both up and down the
coast all the year around, and breeds. I met it first Septem-
ber 24th, off St. Augustine ; September 27th, at Old Fort Is-
land, I saw several of them and noticed their slow and heavy
flight. Their cry is a hoarse croaking note. I have seen them
flying high up in the air, nearly out of sight, and low and
quite tame. Their instinct regarding a gun is only a trifle dul-
ler than is that of our common crow, which in many respects
they closely resemble. They appear to be everywhere com-
mon and seem to replace the crow here as farther South the
crow replaces them. They are very hard to hit, very acute,
never about when you are looking for them, and abundantv

36 Bird-Life in Labrador.

when you have no gun or means of securing them. Their fa-
vorite haunts are the stage-heads and other places where re-
fuse matter is kept. In Summer they are always seen near the
summits of inaccessible crags and on the hilltops in the inte-
rior where they breed. In the "Winter, while driving in the
dog teams over the frozen ponds, rivers, or across the bays,
they often appear, like sentinels, perched on the top of some
dead tree overhanging the ice or hovering near as if waiting
to pick up any chance refuse that you might leave for them or
accidentally drop. In fact, wherever you go in Labrador, and
at any season of the year, you will be sure to fall in with one
or more of these birds. It always amused me to see them while
flying, as I often did, suddenly double up their wings, take
an oblique and very peculiar sort of dive, then righting them-
selves again at the same time uttering their hoarse croak.
Xo one at all familiar with their movements could ever mis-
take a raven for a crow, or vice versa, while it was flying. My
notes on this bird will perhaps add a few items of interest con-
cerning the habits of the species, though, in the main, they
but repeat, with a better choice of words perhaps, what has
been said above : We have had several ravens hovering about
the fish stage all day to-day (October 14) ; the people here
seem to regard them as birds of ill omen, and say that they are
in league with the devil. You can rarely get any of the na-
tives to shoot at one of these birds, no matter how near they
come, and they seem positively afraid of the results of so do-
ing, fearing that it will bring them misfortune for the remain-
der of the year. The bird is really a very difficult one to
shoot. I have often lain in wait for it \vith my gun, firing at
it both when at rest and on the wing, even at a short distance
off, and had it raise its huge black wings and fly slowly away
with a harsh and hollow croak that seemed to defy me to try
my worst. I have wasted more extra large ducking charges
at the raven than at almost any other bird, and obtained the
least results. The bird itself is very common everywhere,
Summer and Winter, breeding on the high cliffs and hilltops

Bird- Life in Labrador. 37

and remaining about wherever there is any putrid flesh. It
apparently loves to walk or fly about on or near the tops of
the hilly crests on the mainland, and rest on the trees near the
frozen* bays in winter. It frequents the seaeoast, and is com-
mon about the inland ponds and lakes. It replaces here the
crow, which is occasionally though very rarely seen so far East.
One man told me that a few years previous an adult pure
white raven was shot on the coast.

COMMON CROW

Corvus frugivorus. — BARTR.

SOME of the inhabitants told me that they had seen crows
up Esquimaux River. It seems highly probable that strag-
glers might occur so far East ; as the two birds are so differ-
ent, both in size and cry, they would not be easily con-
founded.

CANADA JAY Whiskey Jack

Perisoreus canadensis. — (L.) BP.

A more meddlesome, noisy, independent young fellow than
this same good-for-nothing whiskey jack probably never ex-
isted ; and yet you would grow even fond of him for his very
impudence, if nothing else, were you to spend six long Winter
months snowed up ten miles in the interior of Labrador, with
birds and animals your almost sole companions. This jay is at
times very wild and at others very tame. Its appearance
while flying is much like that of the white-rumped shrike, at
least so it struck me when first I saw it flying. I have usually
found it wild, and very difficult to approach. I have pursued
it over field and thicket, in high woods and from one tall
treetop to another for hours together before succeeding in
shooting it. In its cunning and sagacity it much resembles
its neighbor, the blue jay, but its notes are very different. It
is generally very noisy, a single pair making disturbance

38 Bird-Life in Labrador.

enough for a dozen ordinary birds. Though this jay appears
to be of tolerably large size yet the body is very small ; the
feathers, being long, downy, and fluffy, enable the bird to ruf-
fle them up so as to present the appearance of being fully
twice its real size. A double protection is thus presented
against the extreme cold weather of this coast. They are
more or less common everywhere in the interior, and the far-
ther inland we went the more abundant and tamer they ap-
peared to be. The people from these interior cabins told
great stories of Sir Jack, who was evidently a great favorite
with them in spite of the harsh words that they occasionally
employed regarding him, though I failed to learn in what
respect he so greatly annoyed them. They said that they
were everywhere common about their huts, in the thickets
around, and would often come into the very dooryard and
pick up crumbs that might be thrown to them there. At these
"Winter quarters" the dwellers always have a number of
dogs, which require to be fed once a day from pieces of old
seal or whale meat that has been frozen and carefully pre-
served for them. In order to keep and protect this dogs'
meat a simple raised platform, six or eight feet from the
ground, is erected on four poles, and the meat simply thrown
upon it and fed to the dogs, cut up upon some billet of wood
with a hatchet, in frozen chunks just as it is. Over and
on these stages the ravens and jays alight in perfect crowds.
Now, why it should particularily exasperate the indwellers of
the cabins to see this small jay slyly thieving a few pieces of
meat I can not see. They can not make very great inroads
upon it ; yet, in answer to the question as to why the jay ex-
asperated them so, the cry always was : " They steal the dogs'
meat." I strongly suspect that the sentiment had more
words than meaning to it, and the true relation between the
people and these birds was rather as when one quarrels good-
naturedly with an intimate friend. I saw stragglers all
through the Winter, and have no doubt but that it breeds
abundantly inland during the Summer.

Bird-Life in Labrador. &*

NIGHT HAWK

Chordediles popetue. — (V.) BD.

As I have already Included in my list several so-called ex-
tra-limital species, a species n9t to be sought probably within
the true bounds of Labrador proper, so I quote the night hawk
as being common at Natashquan, and probably more or less
so all along the southern portion of the North shore. I in-
clude this and other like species because I noted them so near
Labrador proper, though I do not care thereby to become in*-
volved in a critical examination of the birds of the whole of
Canada, which, at the present time, I wish particularly to
avoid. I may, at the end of the present paper, add a few
words upon hypothetical occurrences in Labrador and its im-
mediate vicinity, and my reasons for considering each species ;
but upon this I am by no means decided. The date of this
occurrence was June 20th.

BELTED KINGFISHER

Ceryle alcyon. — - (L.) BOIE.

THE kingfisher appears to be more common even than the
night hawk, having been seen by our party several times, and
reported from Natashquan to Esquimaux River, at the former
place, and for some distance east of it, being regarded as a
regular Summer resident and breeding, though by no means
common. It is safe to infer, that where the kingfisher is found
breeding it is not at all unlikely for one to find one or more
species of the swallow tribe breeding also near by, though
none were reported to me.

HAIRY WOODPECKER

Picus mllosus. — L.

IN writing up my biographies of birds I often think of the
terrible monotony there would be in going over and over the
same old names, and racking one's brain time and again, to

40 Bird-Life in Labrador.

think what to say concerning each, were it not that birds del
differ in their habits somewhat according to their location,
and the varied scenes, trials, and triumphs through which one
goes in the pursuit of the bird life of any new region are al-
ways fresh and interesting. I read my title, hairy wood-
pecker. In writing lists, papers, books even how many times
have I penned that name, and each time to add something, be
it never so small, that was new, I hope at least, to our knowl-
edge of the species. So in life, we go over and over the same
scenes, in memory and in reality, but so varied from their con-
nection with friendships and external objects that, in their new
dress, we scarcely recognize them. Imagine my surprise then,
in distant Labrador, one day, October 28, at the sudden appa-
rition of a small calico-colored bird, vigorously pecking away
at the dead limb of a tall old white birch tree, not a dozen
rods away from where I stood viewing the remains of an old
beaver's dam, which blocked the channel of a wide gully
through which a diminutive rill trickled into the wide pond a
few feet below. Be still, my heart, be still ! Am I in the
woods just back of my Massachusetts' home ? And is not
that a responsive hammer at the distant left ? I wake to the
realities of the situation immediately, and a moment later a
fine specimen of the present species tumbles, wing over wing,
to the ground. I bag it and rush for the mate, which proves
to be a downy. Thus I secure two strong reminders of that
same well-known woods just back of my Massachusetts' home
' — even among the deep snows and cold weather of far-off
Labrador. My notes of these two species are short and to the
point relative to its occurrence here. I shot one of these
birds the same day with a specimen of pubescens, in a lonely
dell by a pond, on an old dead tree. It was not a bit wild,
and allowed me to come quite close to it. Its habits appeared
to be almost exactly like that of the same species at home*
Others have been reported as shot by parties further up the
river, and it appears not rare along the edges of the ponds and
rivers inland. It probably resides all the year around and
breeds.

Bird-Life in Labrador. 41

DOWNY WOODPECKER

Picas pubesgens. — L.

VERY nearly the same remarks will apply to this as to the
former bird. I shot one of these the same day that I secured
the specimen of vitlosus. It was not one hundred rods from
the same spot, and was also hammering away on one of the
top branches of a tall tree. It required some patient watch-
ing to detect its precise location, as it was rather wilder than
the former species. Others are reported from the interior
along the river, and it appears, like its neighbor here, by no
means rare. It seems to have much the same habits as birds
of the same species that I have observed elsewhere. March
29th, my diary says, a specimen was shot and others seen at
Old Fort Lake. It is probably a regular resident all the
year around and breeds during the summer months.

BLACK-BACKED THREE-TOED WOODPECKER

Picoides arcticus. — (Sw.) GR.

A SINGLE specimen is reported from a collection in the
possession of one of the natives on the coast by Dr. Elliott
Coues, who states that he saw it there, and thinks that it may
not be uncommon in the interior.

GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER
FLICKER

Cofaptes cruwttiix. — (L.) Sw.

IT was regarded by the natives as extremely rare. I saw
the wing of^one of these birds at L'Anse Clair. No doubt
other evidences of its capture are common along the coast.

GREAT HORNED OWL

Bubo Virginianus. — (GM.) BP.
THIS owl does not appear to be rare in Labrador. I saw

42 Bird-Life in Labrador

the foot of one, obtained the record of the capture of one,
and saw an immense fellow probably of this species on two
distinct occasions. " They are often seen, and several at a
time," was the answer of an intelligent inhabitant to whom
the bird was described. It doubtless occurs all along the
Labrador peninsula and perhaps breeds.

SHORT EARED OWL

^4s/o accipitnnus. — (PALI,.) XEWT.

Ax owl of this species, which one of the men had just shot,
was brought to me October 16. It was shot at Old Fort Is-
land. My note upon it reads : Though owls are generally
regarded as rare in this region, I believe them to be more
common than is usually supposed, several species having been
observed at different points along the coast. In regard to the
one mentioned, it was shot by one of the men who said that
about dusk the bird attacked him and he could not drive it
away until he had put the whole charge of shot through its
body, which so badly blew it to pieces that I was unable to
do anything with it but save a few feathers by which to com-
pare the species. It probably frightened him, being fright-
ened by him, by flying about in a bewildered manner in vain
endeavors to escape. It appeared to be an extraordinarily
dark variety of our common short-eared owl.

SNOWY OWL

ONE of the most magnificent specimens of the bird family
is this same snowy owl, — and a .splendid fellow he is, being
nearly two feet in length and between four and five in extent,
or from tip to tip of the wings. The snowy owl is probably
a resident throughout the year and breeds along the coast of
Labrador ; but I can only speak of its occurrence in Winter,
for the onlv record I obtained of it was at that season of the

Bird- Life in Labrador. 43

year, and well have I occasion for remembering it. The
miles and miles that I have tramped for this same " Nascopie,"
this veritable " American man " or, better still, Labrador
man, would count well up into the scores. The one that I
followed so persistently over hill and dell, from one part of
the island to another, was apparently the same specimen ;
what a tale would be unfolded could he talk for half an hour.
How he would fairly chuckle could he tell of the number of
times that he had led the writer of this account of him over
hills, across deep ravines, and up to the knees in snow, only
to silently rise, flap his great wings, and be off for good, with
the aforesaid writer four, five, and even seven miles from his
home, at the shades of evening ; or, after a long day's hard
tramp, without a sight of him, had his ludship come, just as
said shades were falling, and planted himself in full view but
slowly to fade out of sight in the dusk of the evening ! The
snowy owl is found all along the coast, and doubtless breeds
in many places, even here being much more abundant some
years than others as I am informed : But the feeble tongue of
man goes a very short way towards adding halo about such an
object as the present one, and so I will let the matter-of-fact
note book tell its story without comment : — A specimen of
this magnificent owl has been about Old Fort Island all the
Winter. I have often seen him perched on the summit of
some knoll or high hill, whence he can see about everything
that is going on and appears to defy approach. It is almost
if not quite impossible for a single man to shoot one of these
birds, unless he be an exceptionally fine long-distance shot or
uses the rifle for his weapon. The owl, apparently at least,
can turn his head completely around without moving from his
position. Owls are said to see only at dusk or in the night
time, but if the white owl cannot see in the daytime then all
birds are blind. The most successful hunters of this bird, as
of nearly everything else in fact that hunger can render either
palatable or in the least nutritious as food, — for the flesh of
this bird is eaten by the Labradorians — are the Indians.

44 Bird-Life in Labrador.

The Indians hunt the white owl when possible always with
two persons, each going in opposite directions, the one going
ahead and attracting his attention while the other crawls up to-
wards him. The owl appears to be unconscious that he is
watched by two individuals, and is thus shot without much
difficulty. They see easily in the daytime. They seem to
feed principally on mice, and I have often found skulls of the
same almost perfect in their balls or castings. I have heard
them hoot only when, being alarmed, they fly to some place
of supposed safety. I got very close to one one day when
without my gun, he seemed to be perfectly white. Many intel-
ligent persons with whom I conversed on the subject, and who
had shot a good many owls upon the coast, insisted that the
plumage of the white owl, in Labrador at least, was pure
white in Winter, the spots and speckles appearing in the
Spring, deepening in the Summer and Autumn, and that the
Fall moult leaves them white again. I sought answers to this
question of pure white plumage in several distinct localities
with always the same result, as above. The birds, they say,
are never shot in a white dress at any other time than in mid-
AV inter, the amount of white being a true mark of the season.
The flesh of the white owl, if the bird be not too old, is es-
teemed good eating by the people on the coast. I saw evi-
dences of newly-killed birds at several places that I visited,
in the shape of wings, feathers, etc., and when asked what be-
came of the bird the people would answer, " we eat it, sir ! "
At a distance, when perched upon some hilltop, one can-
hardly distinguish the white owl from a cap of snow. The
white owl, the great black-backed gull, and the raven have
probably been the targets for more charges, and extra large
charges at that, of powder and shot then anv other birds of
the fauna of Labrador that either myself or my friends tired
at while on the coast.

MARSH HAWK

Cii'CHK ('i}<tiicitx hiulBoniwt. — (L.) SCIIL.

MY notes on this species jjive the satisfactory record of

Bird- Life in Labrador. 45

" One specimen found at Dead Island Harbor." I have no
doubt but that the bird is more or. less common in various lo-
calities all along the coast. I do not believe it to be a rare
bird in Labrador.

COOPER'S HAWK

Accipiter cooperi. — Bi*.

I SAW the tail of a Cooper's hawk in the possession of one of
the natives, a few miles in the interior up Esquimaux River.
He called the bird the " partridge hawk," and said that it was
a particular enemy of the partridges and ptarmigan. He did
not regard it as at all rare. It also probably breeds.

LABRADOR GYRFA^CON

Falco gyrfalco. — L. — obpoletus. —

OF this same species my notes say : saw the bird and have
no doubt but that he had a nest on an inaccessible crag near
the house, but was unable to obtain it. I, at various times,
saw several hawks in the dim distance that I, at the time, had
a very strong suspicion might have been this rare bird. I be-
lieve I must have seen it on several occasions. The one men-
tioned had his nest quite near our house, and we several times
queried, very strongly, as to whether or no we could not reach
the nest, the edges of which we could see way above us on a
crag that apparently could be reached neither from above nor
below, with ropes and ladders ; but the actual attempt was too
foolhardv for the enthusiasm of any of us or all combined, and
so we gave it up.

PIGEON HAWK

Falco e&fumhariu*. — L.

PROBABLY more common on the Gulf coast than either in
the Straits or beyond. It does not appear to be uncommon

4(> Bird-Life w Labrador.

in either of the two latter places, while it is quite common in
the former. We had several alight on our vessel, both going
and coming, and found still other evidences of its occurrence
on the Gulf coast. It is apparently a shore bird, not going
far is'and. Yet in this supposition I may be wrong as we
saw it hunting land birds principally. The testimony every-
where was that it was not at all rare. It probably breeds.
These same remarks may also apply to the sparrow hawk,
but we have no absolute proof that such is the case from rec-
ords or specimens.

SPRUCE PARTRIDGE CANADA GROUSE

Cftnace ea-nadenxis. — (L.) REICH.

THIS is another bird of which I have most pleasing recol-
lections; as it served me for dinner on more than one occasion.
I do not consider them the be?t of eating ; but they are most
certainly delicacies when placed beside corned pork and a
steady diet of codfish. The flesh is rather bitter and its odor
quite strong though not unpleasant. Both these facts are
accounted for by the nature of the berries, buds, and seeds
which the bird feeds upon. I am not aware that their flesh
is at any time poisoned by the poisonous nature of any of the
berries or other food eaten, as too often occurs with our ruffed
grouse of the States ; and, as far as I could learn, it was eaten
with impunity by the natives at all seasons of the year. Re-
garding the bird and its habits, strangely, my notes furnish
very little material. This is the more peculiar to me. as I had
occasion to see the bird quite often and ought to have learned
considerable regarding it. My first note was written on Oc-
tober 28, at Old Fort Bay. I seem to have made a few notes
at that time and none whatever afterward. This species ap-
pears to be common everywhere along the coast. I found
them in the evergreens bordering the lake and in small patches
of tangled growths of fir, spruce, and other low shrubbery on
the tops of the hills. They were very tame. They will sel-

Bird-Life in Labrador. 47

dom rise until the hunter is close upon them ; then, with a
tremendous rush and flutter, they fly to some bush, rock, or
tree, in the most open and exposed situation, apparently to see
what their danger may be. Like the ostrich who, hiding his
head, regards his body as safe from the hunter so the spruce
partridge regards himself as safe anywhere but in the very
bushes that conceal him from the hunter's approach. Having
once gained his perch of observation he cranes his neck and
looks blindly about in every direction. At this time the hun-
ter approaches, even recklessly, and secures his game by the
very unmanly process of knocking him over with some long
•pole provided for the purpose, or even with the very muzzle
of his gun. Sometimes several will alight upon a tree or be
discovered on their roost, then the same process is put into
operation ; the hunter knocks over the one lowest down upon
the branches, so that his fall will not greatly disturb those
higher up who either seldom move at all or merely change
their position slightly upon the branch on which they rest, or
move to the next higher one, so that the hunter is soon able
to deal with the whole number without disturbing them suffi-
ciently to cause them to take wing and escape by flight. This
is the actual process pursued with this very foolish bird, who
does not seem to have even sense enough to know danger
when he sees it. The spruce partridge is not nearly as com-
mon now as it was a few years ago even, yet there are still
enough to furnish an occasional meal to anybody who will
hunt them. For the past few years they have not been hunted
to any great extent, since the ptarmigan, the bird which usu-
ally goes by the name of simply partridge here, is generally
so very much more abundant. As a rule the farther inland
one goes, within an extent say of fifty or one hundred miles
at least, the more abundant the spruce partridge becomes.
There is another species of the brown-colored partridges that
is occasionally found here, it" reporls be true, which goes
under the name of " pheasant; " whether it be the ruffed grouse
of the States or some other species I could not learn. I have

48 Bird-Life in Jjibrador.

no doubt but that the ruffed grouse might occasionally stray
so far out of its range, but am by no means certain.

WILLOW PTARMIGAN

Lagopus albu*. — (GM.) Aro.

OF the ptarmigans ornithologists, as well as the natives of
Labrador, insist that there are three species inhabiting these
regions. Several intelligent citizens with whom I conversed
upon the subject, and who were themselves hunters of no
mean repute, assured me that these three species could be
told in connection with the usual distinguishing marks by the
color of the iris. They explained that the difference between
the cock and the hen, and in breeding and out of breeding
season, c<>uld also be thus distinguished. One person tried to
explain the matter, but ended by leaving it in a much worse
jumble than it was previous to his first statement. Two
species, certainly, this and the following, are common resi-
dents and breed in the interior; and beautiful birds they are
either in their snow-white Winter or their dove-colored spot-
ted Summer plumage. The ptarmigan, in relative abundance,
has its off and its on years as do many other of the game birds
of the States and Lower Canada. Two very intelligent hunt-
ers, brothers, told me that the year before I visited the coast,
in 1880, they took, with their guns and their traps, three hun-
dred ptarmigan and eight hundred rabbits. The Winter of
1880 and 1881 we took about fifty ptarmigan altogether and
not a single rabbit. Later in the season the Indians from the
interior reported that a peculiar disease had attacked the rab-
bits and that they died by the hundreds. The nature of this
disease could not of course be ascertained. It was reported
that the animals would suddenly rush from the concealed
woods to some open space where they would race madly a-
round in a circle until they dropped dead. That year the
Indians refused to eat them, at least so they gave us to un-
derstand. The flesh of the ptarmigan is very highly es-

Bird-Life in Labrador. 49

teemed as a great delicacy by the natives. "We found it in-
deed very pleasant eating. This species (the albus) seemed by
far the most common, being called the willow partridge and
said never to be found, or rarely if at all, thirty miles inland.
The general verdict was that the third species, which was af-
firmed everywhere we went, replaced the present in the open
grounds inland, and that it seldom if ever came down to the
coast. We did not find it a wild bird at all, but huddled up,
three to eight in a covey, feeding just in the brush bordering
the ponds a mile or so inland. They were quite easy to kill.
The brief mention of this bird in my notes, though princi-
pally confirming what has been previously said regarding the
species, may still be of interest : Middle of January ; Old
Fort Bay; length of specimen, 16.75; extent, 24.50 ; wing,
8; tail, 5; bill, .40; tarsus, 1.50; middle toe and claw, 1.85;
hind toe and claw, about .50 ; quills with shafts black-cen-
tered ; tail with the ten outer feathers black, the four middle
ones white. Most winters the species is common and some-
times even abundant, this year it is rare. They appear in the
lowlands and shrubbery most generally after a northerly
'breeze, followed by an easterly one and what is called " the
glitter/' which is that appearance of the air between rain, hail,
and snow, when the substance that falls appears to freeze the
moment it touches any object and while yet the ai* is dry and
cold. After a light snow their trackings can easily be discov-
ered. They usually lead directly to the covert of the birds,
which seldom fly about from place to place unless especially
forced to it. Usually the birds are wild only when the
weather is stormy or the wind blows, while they are tame even
to stupidity in pleasant weather. They often appear soon af-
ter the first snow of November and remain about all the Win-
ter. Their note is between a cluck and a whistle, generally
sounded while feeding or lying about with their tame or stu-
pid-like pleasant-weather manners. They seldom frequent
the hilltops like rupestris.

50 Bird- Life hi Labrador.

ROCK PTARMIGAN

La c /opt ix rupestrw. — LEACH.

THIS species was known everywhere I went as the " moun-
tain " partridge. They told me that it was only found high
up among the hills and that it did not descend into the open
land along the shores of the lakes and rivers, or associate with
the " willow'7 partridge,. One or two specimens only were se-
cured by our party. They are much rarer than albus but found
along the same extent of coast.

BLACK BELLIED PLOVER Quebec Curlew

frquatarola helvetica. — (L.) Crv.

I THINK that the name of Quebec Curlew must be a local
Canadian name for this bird, for I never heard it except on
my journey from Quebec to Labrador. The bird was found
in small flocks, wherever we went, from Quebec to Blanc
Sablon, and it occurs even farther north and east. It was
generally rather wild and, wading deep into the water, fed on
the small sea animals that it could capture there Its flight
was low and short. When approched while feeding they would
spread out over considerable ground, running at the same time
as far into the water as their long legs would let them, before
taking flight. If on one side of a creek they rarely hV\v farther
than across to some point (if securitv opposite, while they
would go to feeding again at once. If on an opposite side of
some creek it was generally very easy to call them across by
the usual imitation of their crv of <ju or (jx-<ju-(jn repeated
several successive times. It was usually much easier to call
them within shooting distance than it was to approach them
within such. I found that, with these, as with the majority
of the shore birds, the lower that one could bend the body
while crawling upon flocks or single birds the more successful
would be the attempt to get a shot at them. A man standing

I >//•(!- Life in lAibrador. 51

upright and approehiog a flock would hardly get within rifle
range, no matter how slowly or carefully he proceeded. To
play the dog game, drop on all fours and go forward on hands
and knees. They say that it is not the part of a good hunter
or fisherman to give the " points of the craft " away ; but
surely there is very little chance that the writer and the reader
of these sketches will ever " collide," especially upon the
.same limiting ground. The birds that we found were all-in
the gray plumage ; I recollect, I believe, a single specimen,
in the collection of one of the natives, showing the black
most beautifully.

GOLDEN PLOVER

Chcti'ndriux dominicus. — MULL.

1 LKARXED nothing regarding the habits of the golden plover
in Labrador, merely seeing an occasional stuffed specimen;
but from inquiry they appeared to visit the coast occasionally
in small flocks or even in less numbers. They are probably
not really rare, and more or less regular as migrants.

SEMIPALMATED PLOVER RING NECK

JEgiatites semipalmatus. — (^>P0 CAB.

MY principal record of the semi pal mated ring neck reads:
September 20, on Green Island. I saw several small flocks
of this bird but they were associated with flocks of ereunetes
and I thought I distinguished quite positively both birds
feeding and flying in the same flocks together ; they were at
least so near that I was able to separate the species when
they flew. The ring neck is one of the characteristic birds
of Labrador, and breeds abundantly all up and down the
coast. The nest is usually composed of a few dry grasses
scraped together in the open field and in the most exposed
situations. The eggs are four. The bird's artifice draw the
intruder away from her nest or even her young was truly a

•V2 Bird-Life in Labrador.

display of bird intellect if ever there was anything of tliat na-
ture displayed in a bird. It was usually successful. The
cripple wino; and lame foot process were practiced and some-
times both at once. The usual method of dropping one's hut
where the bird first started from would not even succeed in
revealing to me the nest though the little ones, too impatient
to remain still for any length of time, too often revealed their
own hiding place in their hurry to run around among the sand
and grasses and hunt for food. The old birds in breeding
season were very tame ; we seldom molested them at this time.
The young were remarkably pretty creatures, and had the
black parts of the parents replaced with gray. The old birds
were very swift runners and as sly as mice. Having run for
some distance they would utter a soft, plaintive whistle or
phu-pliu and immediately take wring. Their long, angular
wings allowed of a swift, irregular yet not ungraceful flight,
with now the body and now the back turned full upon the
hunter. They presented the prettiest mark for a wing shot
that I ever saw, next to the tern or sea swallow. In fall they
fly much more wildly and are then splendid practice for the
sportsman. I have wasted more charges of powder in simply
practicing upon them than would secure a whole flock if shot
one by one. When I first began this target shooting I could
not hit one bird in a dozen ; after a great deal of wasting of
charges I found that by making my gun barrel follow the de-
scending curve of the bird and firing the moment I fairly
covered him, or was perhaps an inch or so ahead of him (prob-
ably nearer a foot), I could easilv kill four nut of every five
birds. They seemed to prefer to feed high up on the sand
flats and beaches, or, if on the mud flats, at the very edge of
water. They seldom gathered in flocks of any si/e, but ap-
peared to me to be family parties of half-a-dozen or so. The
people along the coast think a great deal of the bird and will
not allow anybody to shoot it in the breeding season. It has
little fear of man, often breeding within a few yards of the
houses.

Bird-Life in Labrador. 53

TURNSTONE

Strepsilas interpres. — (L.) ILL.

MY only note on the turnstone reads : Common at Dead
Island and along the coast in small flocks. They are rather
rare apparently, when classed with the other sandpipers and
waders which frequent the coast.

AMERICAN SNIPE

Gallinago wihoni. — (TEMM.) BP.

THIS is another species that must be given on other au-
thority than my own, and that from a single specimen only.
Yet it is undoubtedly not rare at times all along the coast.

RED-BREASTED SNIPE

Macrorhamphus griseus. — (GM.) LEACH.

THIS bird also undoubtedly occurs, but must be given on
the same authority as the last. One or two specimens only are
really on record from the coast.

LEAST SANDPIPER

• Actodroma* •iiiinHtM.a. — (V.) COUES.

THE least sandpiper is simply a diminutive specimen of the
" grass snipe/' which it resembles in nearly every particular,
though frequenting more particularly the mud flats and the
water's edge rather than the sandy beach and grassy slopes.
The greater part of those that I saw did not appear to associ-
ate with any other species, but were found in small flocks
feeding by themselves, and usually at a time of day when few
of the other species were about, say from 10 a. m. to 4 p. m.
They are common all along the coast in Spring and Fall, and
breed during the Summer. I saw none of the immense flocks

54 Bird- Life in Labrador.

of this species so abundant in certain localities in the States,
though they might have occurred in localities other than those
visited by me.

PECTORAL SANDPIPER JACK SNIPE

Actodromas maeulata. — (V.) COUES.

ALSO called " grass snipe" from the fact of their preferring
grassy and open plats of ground above high tide to the sandy
shores of the beach. They often compromise very strongly in
favor of some muddy flat at low water, where they will wade
in the shallow pools and search for food. It does not appear
to be so wild a bird as most of its kindred species, and its shrilly
whistled pheu-e, repeated or not, is characteristic of the bird
and well known. The flight of the grass snipe is not unlike
that of our common snipe, though generally it is more slow
and regular. They are seldom found in companies of more
than half a dozen together and are more frequently in twos or
threes, or even singly. It does not appear to be rare anywhere
that I observed along the coast. My notes read : September
oO, at Old Fort Island. I shot several of these birds from a
passing flock and saw them more than once flying, or on the
flats near the house and in the grass on the lawn ; they did
not appear common at this time. One specimen had a brown-
ish ash suffusion ; another was dark and streaked on a clear ash
ground. The latter had the hind neck more widely streaked
with black, while in the former it \vas more narrow and of a
closer pattern.

SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER

ex pnxillux. — (L.) CASH.

THE occurrence of this little sandpiper in Labrador is rather
indefinitely fixed in my mind. I can "place" nearly every
other species of sandpiper or wader with almost absolute
certainty, even in many minute particulars, but either I saw

Bird- Life in Labrador. 55

very few of these or they have become so identified in habits
with several other species with which they agree very strong-
ly that I cannot disentangle the meshes with the slightest
satisfaction. In my larger work the only notice of them that
I can find — taken in the Fall when all the sandpipers were
common — reads : An occasional Ereundes pusillus was seen,
but they were rare. My manuscript notes come to my rescue
here somewhat, and say: September 20, at Green Island, in the
river St. Lawrence, I shot several from flocks that landed on
the flats. They were rather tame, and alighted all over the
island which was covered with small stones, lumps of gray
moss, and sand ; pools of water were here and there all along
the surface of the island. On such a place the glitter of the
particles of the whole, even in a clouded sky, prevented one
from distinguishing objects very close beside them. Here the
" peeps " were very common, and they would spring up from
the sand before me in every direction, and so near me that I
could often have almost reached them with a good- sized pole.
In every direction that I walked I drove them up in scores
always singly or in twos or threes. When thus frightened a-
way they would either alight again in the sand alone and run
about or remain perfectly quiet until I had passed or again
flushed them ; or, more often, a great many of them would
gather in a flock on the edge of some pool of water, to be
hunted from one end of the island to the other, or until they
broke up again or left entirely. The singular part of my
diary reads : September 30, I shot one at Old Fort Island
and only one all the Fall. I found it with a large number of
bonapartii. I am greatly of the opinion that my notes are
correct, and that the locality where I did most of my shore
shooting while on the coast did not happen to be as favorable
for this species as for the others I secured there. The bird is
certainly common along portions at least of the Labrador
coast, and it could not easily be mistaken for any other spe-
cies, as its peculiarities are too decided. The singular habits
which these birds possess of wheeling about in an apparently

56 Bird- Life iit Labrador.

blind flurry for a short distance, only to return to nearly or
quite the same spot again, makes me certain that I have seen
flocks of them upon more than one occasion.

RED PHALAROPE

Phalaropus fulicarius — (L.) BP.

I SAW several Mocks and single birds, which were undoubt-
edly of this species, just off the coast at sea, between Belie
Isle and Chateau Bay. As Dr. Elliott Coues procured speci-
mens from off Belle Isle I am the more certain that those I
saw were of this species. They were verv graceful little fel-
lows and not at all wild, except in keeping in the sea off land,
ail the time that we saw them at least.

WHITE RUMPED SANDPIPER
BONAPARTE'S SANDPIPER

Actodromati bonapartii. — (Scm,.) COUES.

EVERYWHERE I went in Labrador I heard of the " Sand
birds." What the sand birds were was a great mystery until
I shot some of them and procured the above species. To say
that they were abundant would be spenking very mildly ;
they were everywhere, both up and down the coast. It is the
sandpiper of Labrador, and equally common on the rocky and
sandy beaches and muddy flats at low water, though it rather
favors the latter location. Its history has been well worked
up in my larger work, so I will repeat it here : Of the white-
rumped sandpiper I saw several immense flocks on the flats
near the house ; the birds were quite tame. Some had the
chestnut edgings of the wings very broad and deep, while sev-
eral of them had either the head or neck, and one had both,
quite ashy; the greater part of them had very little chestnut,
that color being replaced by ash ; the chestnut edgings seemed
to be on birds that were passing from the last stage of young
of the vear to adult birds, but I mav be mistaken. Both

Bird- Life in Labrador. 57

varieties were in the same flock. The flocks were usually
from fifteen to several hundreds in number. They would
alight in the mud flats and feed, running about in the black,
slimy, clay-like muck or mud, running in the water to the
tops of their legs, anil keeping quite close together mean-
while. They feed in the evening and at dusk, chiefly among
the kelp along shore, and I rarely saw even a single bird at
high tide. They were very tame, and if I crouched and ap-
proached them on " all fours " I could get very close indeed ;
even if I maintained for a few moments my upright position,
in silence, they would often come and alight within a few
yards of me. If discovered, single birds and small flocks
would try to escape concealment by remaining perfectly quiet
for a considerable length of time. As long as they remained
thus it was very difficult to see them, even when very near,
as their color corresponded so closely to that of the mud or
kelp where they happened to be, while the approaching dark-
ness assisted them materially in escaping observation. I have
seen them at dusk fly from within a few feet of me when, af-
ter careful examination, I had not supposed that they were
anywhere near. I saw this species associate only with calidrw
arenaria ; the birds did not individually intermingle, but each
kept in its own separate flock. Sometimes a single bird would
be seen flying high and swiftly in the air, but generally their
flight was low and irregular, their notes uttered as two or three
faint, shrill whistles, the same as when made while running
about in search of food. At any uuusual movement or sound
they would instantly take wing ; but should the object remain
still and quiet they would very likely return again to the same
place and often within a dozen feet of the person or object
which previously frightened them. The large flocks seem
to be made up of the union of a large number of single fami-
lies, and I have many times seen them separate and reunite
in repeated succession, thus favoring my supposition ; the same
large flock of one hundred or more would break in the air
and, dispersing into twenty small flocks of five to seven each,

58 Bird-Life in Labrador.

all flying in different directions to round some hill or crest of
land, or simply circle in the air, would form again with a
xhufih, and the whole sweep majestically to the kelp and begin
to feed in common. Most of the specimens obtained at this
season of the year (October 8) had a worn and i'aded look,
and were not nearly as plump or as well plumaged as speci-
mens that I shot later which had bright chestnut edgings to
nearly all the upper feathers. One of these specimens had
the head and neck nearly clear ash, of a very minute pattern.
I often found specimens where the tail feathers were half
black (the upper and side ones) and half white. I greatly
suspect that Tmiga bairdii, that rare sandpiper, bears a
stronger relation to certain forms perhaps of adult, worn
breeding plumage of T. bonapartii than is generally believed.
A single specimen that I secured resembled the bdirdn form
so closely that I will describe it from my note book : Sep-
tember 30, Old Fort Island. I to-day shot a bird that an-
swers nearly to the description of T. bnirdii. I picked it out
of a mess of some eighty of bonaportii that I shot one morn-
ing for breakfast, but before I could skin it, though I laid it
one side carefully, either the eat eat it or it was picked and
potted. I never could find out where it disappeared. Its
measurements were : length, 7. 2o ; extent, lo ; wing, 5 ; tail,
2.2o ; bill rather less than one inch and yet more than .88 ;
tarsus, .88 ; middle toe and claw, .88 ; hind toe and claw, .18 ;
bill and feet black. There were no chestnut markings that I
could observe anywhere, the whole plumage being grayish and
black, and looking like a faded specimen of T. boiiapcuiii.
The two middle feathers of the tail coverts, I believe, alone
were perfectly black. I have examined a large series of boiiu-
}KU'tn and found them with coverts varying from perfectly
white to strongly edged with black. The specimen might
have been a Summer plumage and found rarely excepting in
latitudes where the bird breeds or even there not common.
The bright bay or chestnut edgings to the feathers of back
and shoulders appear only in late Fall, so far as I could dis-

Bird-Life in Labrador. 59

cover ; Summer specimens having no chestnut anywhere that
I could observe. I have noticed frequently that the fatter
many species are the more their feathers incline to such colors
as rufous, chestnut, etc1., and the leaner they are the grayer ;
but this is not always true, yet a bird is seldom in high plu-
mage unless fat also. I really grew quite fond of this sand-
piper. They were very abundant. I went out owe morning
to shoot a mess of them for breakfast and had the good for-
tune to secure eighty-seven of them in five shots besides any
amount of wounded birds that I was unable to obtain. I
have often had a flock of several hundred alight within easy
range or circle over my head or near by from which I have
secured a do/en and over at a single shot ; yet their numbers
did not nppear to diminish or their tameness decrease in the
slightest.; butTI must hasten to other species.

ASH COLORED SANDPIPER ROBIN SNIPE

KNOT

nqa canutus. — LINN.

REGARDING this rather rare sandpiper my note book reads :
September 30, Old Fort Island. I shot several of these birds
to-day from a flock that landed on the flats. I recollect see-
ing only this one flock during the entire season. They were
rather wild ones. One specimen was evidently a young bird
and the plumage almost entirely gray, with semi-circles of
white and black ; rump white barred with black ; tail ashy,
white tipped with a darker edge ; throat faintly streaked, and
under parts with slight buff sprinklings, otherwise white It
was very fat. I remember distinctly what a melancholy-look-
ing group they looked, as they stood in or near a small pool of
water and searched for food. I verily believe that that one
attempt fully4satisfied them of the unproductiveness of the Lab-
rador soil and so they left for scenes more productive and climes
more congenial.

60 Bird- Life in Labrador.

RUDDY PLOVER SANDERLING

Calidris arenaria. — (L.) IL,L,K;.

THIS is another characteristic bird of the Labrador marshy
and sandy low tide flats, though, the specimens that I saw
preferred mostly the sandy beaches at high tide. They are
seen everywhere along the coast, though they are much more
wild than the usual run of beach birds, and generally fly in
much smaller flocks which do not seem so readily to break up
into families or flocks, but fly closer together and keep to-
gether most of it not all the time. Now and then a solitary
individual would be seen flying or picking up food in company
with many of the other species of sandpipers, but for the most
part they were alone. I saw numbers of them during my stay
on the coast, but seldom many at a time,- They were very
wild and hard to approach, and kept quite close together in
small flocks of from ten to thirty ; their flight is wilder and
their call different from that of the other birds with which
they associated. I found them very plum]) and fat, and, be-
ing larger, much better eating than the majority of the small
shore birds.

HUDSONIAN GODWIT

Limoxa hcemastica. — (LiNN., 1758).

THURSDAY, September 10, was a red-letter day to me in the
bird line. Referring to the notes again they say : To-day I
succeeded in obtaining a specimen of the Limowt /Knnastica,
the Hudsonian or black-tailed god wit, also called the ring-
tailed marlin. It is a rare bird even in these regions, and
was the only one I obtained on the coast. It was at the time
flying rather high up in the air and with the irregular flight of
the spotted sandpiper. Its note, uttered while in the air
sounded more like the sqeak of a mouse than any thing else I
can name. From its rarity I give the dimensions as I took

Bird- Life in Labrador. 61

them : Length from end of bill to tail, 16 inches ; end of
bill to toes, 18.50; extent, 28 ; wing, 8.75 ; tail, 3.25 ; bill,
3.25; unfeathered tibia, 1.13; tarsus, 2.50; hind toe and
claw, .50; middle toe and claw, 1.65. It was a male bird and
had the gizzard full of gravel and nearly digested matter.
The people tell me that it is occasionally seen in the Fall, but
that it is rare. Audubon speaks of it as " rare along the At-
lantic district in Spring and Autumn. Breeds in the barren
grounds of the Arctic seas in great numbers." It seems to be
confined to the more middle interior parts of the Arctic re-
gions, and the majority of writers whose works I have seen
speak of it, as I have generally found it, as rare along the
Eastern Atlantic and Gulf coast generally.

GREATER YELLOW-LEGS STONE SNIPE

Totanus* mehmokucus. — (GM.) VIEILJ,.

THE people of the coast here have a curious name for this
" yellow-legs," it being everywhere known as the nan-sary+
The derivation of the word I was unable to learn. It is by
no means a rare bird, though from what I saw of it it seemed
to perfer localities up the river and on the shores bordering
the mainland rather than the islands, perhaps because it was
less likely to be molested there. I found it all along the coast
in Spring and Fall and late into the breeding season. It un-
doubtedly breeds. They occur singly or in small numbers in
the most unexpected situations. In rounding small headlands
in our boat we often came across a single solitary individual
perched upon some rock within a few feet of the water's edge ;
the moment it was perceived it would fly away with a loud,
shrill cry that would wake the neighborhood and send to
wing every bird within sound of its call. We occasionally found
it on the outside marshes associated with other smaller sand-
pipers and plovers ; but its habits here, as elsewhere, lead it to
be cordially detested by the hunters, who lose many a good shot
through it.

62 Bird-Life in Labrador.

SOLITARY SANDPIPER

Rhyaeophilus solitarius. — ( WILS.) BP.

NOT rare in Spring and Fall. Breeds. I saw this little
sandpiper on several occasions but always alone and standing
or running about some slippery water or kelp-covered rock in
a most melancholy manner. I would not call it common yet
it was hardly rare.

SPOTTED SANDPIPER

Tmngoides macu/ariuq. — (L.) GRAY.

THE same remarks might be made of this bird as of the
last, and with equal propriety, as to its occurrence and breed-
ing ; but it is much more common, confined more to the land
and shore line, and far more tame. It is familiarly known
there as here by the names " tip-up," " teeter/' etc., though
by far its most common epithet is that of the " crooked-
winged bird," doubtless from the peculiar way in which it
holds its wings when flying.

HUDSONIAN CURLEW JACK CURLEW

Nwnenius hudsonicus. — LATH.

THE Jack Curlew much resembles the Esquimaux Curlew;
but it is easily distinguished by its call, which is louder and
less refined than that of the latter bird. It appears later in the
Fall, in much lesser numbers, is more solitary in its habits, and
frequents the water 'sedge more than the interior sweeps of hill-
side and meadow, the home of its neighbor. It is not rare in
Fall — -the only time of the year I saw it.

ESQUIMAUX CURLEW DOUGH BIRD

Numenius boreafis. — (FoRST.) LATH.

I SHALL not soon forget the many pleasant and exciting

Bird-Life in Labrador. 63

tramps I have at one time or another made after this prince of
game birds of the Northeast, the curlew. Other game is as
nothing when compared to this true game bird of Labrador,
yet it is seldom found excepting in the Fall, and then only
for the short space of two or three weeks. Though by no
means so common as it was years ago, and even now has
years when it is much rarer than at other times, it still
maintains its distinctive character of being excessively abund--
ant all along the coast, at least from Belle Isle, if not Ungava
itself, to the mouth of the St. Lawrence. The curlews visit
the Labrador coast in immense flocks from their breeding
grounds, the Hudson's Bay territory,' and, according to Aud-
ubon, would pass over this region like other regions in its mi-
grating course to the more southern and southwestern fields,
were they not periodically detained by the weather. Immedi-
ately upon arrival the immense hordes break up into small
flocks, which seek feeding grounds upon the extensive plains
and hillsides back of the coast where its favorite food, the
" curlew- berry/'. grows in large numbers. This berry is of
an inky black color ;and juicy, and so greedy for it are the
birds that they often stuff themselves to repletion ; and they
stain everything, even to feathers and flesh, with the inky
juice of the berry. While on the Labrador coast their chief
object seems to be to feed, and they are found at all times of
the day on their favorite grounds fairly gormandizing.
They eat also molluscs, which are here in abundance at low
tide, though they seem to prefer the berries. The best way
in which- to hunt curlews seems to be for several persons to
conceal themselves in favorable localities near the feeding
grounds, while another party hunts the birds up and drives
them from place to place. In this way the hunters succes-
sively procure a large number of victims while the birds fly
about from one place to another of fancied security, away from
each gunner, only to meet another who forces them back to
the first again, and so on. Curlews become very fat in a .
very short time. Usually large flocks are much more tame

64 Bird- Life in Labrador.

than small flocks ; they are usually also much more easily ap-
proached. A small flock is generally a wild one, and I have
spent hours aud hours in following up small fl cks, of from
ten to thirty birds, over hills and broad stretches of table
land without once getting a single shot at them, tj come sud-
denly upon a large flock out o which, wit1 out much trouble,
I would secure a good mess at a single discharge of my gun.
The flight of the curlew is beautiful and graceful, though
very hard to discribe. It is very swift, and when just about
to alight it seems to poise its wings and drop to the ground
with a gliding motion most beautiful to the sight. Its note
is a clear and mellow whistle which, like that of most shore
birds, is easily imitated; the birds respond readily uo the imi-
tation. The curlew is everywhere looked upon as the charac-
teristic bird of Labrador, and persons visiting the coast are
not considered successful hunters, no matter how large their
bag in other direction, unless they have secured at least one
mess of curlews. The curlew's leave as suddenly as they ap-
pear. Usually by the first of September or a few days later
they have all gone southward, when the Jack curlews take
their place, though in much smaller numbers. When feeding
the flight of the curlews is low ; when migrating, high.
When flying low the flight is short. The flesh is dark ; they
are much less abundant now than formerly, and are getting
wary of their usual feeding grounds from the number of hun-
ters that pursue them.

BITTERN STAKE DRIVER

Botaurus mugitans. — (BARTR.) COUES.

THIS bird is not considered as rare by the local sportsmen
and trophies of its occurrence here are often seen. I do not
believe it to be really common, yet it may occur occasionally.
The frequent reports I heard of " a bird with very long
neck and tall legs," was probably a reference to this species.
The green and the night heron may possibly occur in Labra-
dor though I should hardly look for them so far north and east.

Bird-Life in Labrador. 65

CANADA GOOSE

Bernida canadensis. — (L.) ROIE.

WE saw many a flock and single individual of this noble
game bird while in Labrador, and here I might fairly make a
most excellent Irish bull and say that of the many we saw we
" didn't get but one and that one we didn't get." Flocks after
flocks would go honking by us overhead ; we could see and hear
them, but never a shot could we get. On the flats of a little
island, close by our Summer home, I was informed that they
made regular visiting places, and many were the stories told
of their visits there by the successful as well as the non-
successful hunters; still not a specimen. At length, one day
in early Spring, we started to go to Bonne Esperance, about
eight miles from our stopping place. Our curious experience
on this trip may be of interest to some of your readers and I
will relate it : There were four of us in the boat and we were
just about half way between the islands and at the entrance
of a passage completely filled and blocked with floating cakes
of ice, and were just wondering how we should accomplish our
journey, when one of my companions called out : " There's a
wabbv?" The wabby is a red-necked grebe, and though not
uncommon flies so high as to be usually quite out of range
even of a rifle. " No, its a loon," said another. The flight of
both the grebe and the loon, especially if it be a young one, is
quite similar, hence the comparison. As it passed our stern
we decided, from its long neck and unmistakable honk, that
it was a goose. We all ceased rowing and crouched into the
bottom of our boat. One of the party immediately hung his
cap upon the end of his gun barrel and, swinging it around
vigorously, shouted at the same time most loudly. The goose
evidently saw or heard or both the signal and began to vary
its course : soon it turned completely and flew directly over
the boat. It was still high up in the air, so high that nobody
would fire at it. Out of despair I raised my four-shot Roper

66 Bird-Life in Labrador.

— the best gun for shooting I ever had in my hands — and
gave it a charge. Far away as it was, the old goose doubled
up its wings and tumbled head over heels to a block of ice
in the very middle of the passage before us. The bird was
wounded, not killed. Then began the fun. As fast as we
pulled from one block of ice to another the goose would hop
just so far ahead, keeping up a most vociferous scoulding at
us meanwhile. Work as we would we could not lesson the
distance, and after nearly four hours of the hardest kind of
toil we left the goose and began to turn our attention to getting
home again. It took us some hours to get out the passage
into which we had worked our way, but we accomplished it
at last and reached our destination about dark. The Canada
goose is not rare all along the coast, but it seldom stops, except
here and there, over a night or two. We do not call it a rep-
resentative bird of the region.

BRANT GOOSE

Bernida brenta. — (PALL.) STEPH.

THE brant goose is much more common in the lower part of
the province than on the Labrador coast proper. From Cape
Whittle westward along the north shore it is by no means
rare, and often even abundant. I saw a number of good sized
flocks at and near Mingan and even had an opportunity of
tasting this delicious wildfowl. I should hardly call it a bird
of Labrador, though in the sense that the word Labrador is so
often used (although wrongly) as comprising all the north
shore, it is by no means a rare migrant, occurring in flocks
just offshore and even a short distance up the livers along
the coast.

DUSKY DUCK BLACK DUCK

Anas obscura. — GM.
THIS is the most common fresh water duck of Labrador,

Bird-Life in Labrador. 67

and is abundant everywhere in ponds, pools, and flooded mea-
dow lands. They generally fly in family groups of half a
dozen or so, seldom in flocks of any great extent. They are
not hard to approach if there be the slightest rock or hillock
behind which to conceal the hunter, but in open ground it is
impossible to get within shot of them — the usual device prac-
ticed with the diving sea ducks being here entirely useless.
The islands and mainlands of Labrador are cut up every-
where by ponds and pools of water, both large and small.
In these the black ducks delight to revel ; you are sure to
find them at morning and at evening, and even often in the
day. When frightened they immediately take wing and rise
high in the air, thus giving the gunner a good opportunity to
shoot them while on +he wing. Their flight is not over swift,
though strong. The birds are pretty hard to kill and need
rather large shot. They are splendid eating, and hence much
prized by the natives as an article of food. They are found
in Spring and Fall all along the coast and evidently breed
inland during the Summer in large numbers.

PINTAIL DUCK

Dofila acuta. — (L.) JE:N .

WE had considerable sport over the manner in which the
occurrence of this duck in Labrador was demonstrated. One
of the natives, whose prowess in the hunting line was always
the sport of the region around, and whose long, old-fashioned,
single-barreled relic of a former century seemed as unsports-
man-like as its owner, who never went hunting- — probably
for fear of this same ridicule — one day espied two ducks feed-
ing in the shallow, low-tide pools near the house. Hastily
loading his gun — for the first time in a year or more — he
hurried to a cover and succeeded in bringing in a specimen
of the above species — probably to boast of it forever after-
ward. The hunters reported it as very rare, and none of
them had any name for it, a pretty good sign that it was

68 Bird-Life in Labrador.

seldom taken along the coast. It is not rare in Newfound-
land, I believe. This one was secured at Old Fort Island.

AMERICAN WIDGEON

Mareca americana. — (L.) STEPH.

A SINGLE female of this species was shot in Old Fort Bay
November 27, 1880. They are said to winter here in great
numbers clustering in the waters of the river and in other
congenial places. In Summer they are said to breed not
uncommonly up the river, and that they lay their eggs in
hollow trees ; and one man told me of a nest of eight eggs
that he found in an old birch. It occurs along the north
shore in inland streams and other favorable places. It did
not seem to be regarded as a rare bird by those to whom I
showed the specimen though universally regarded as a fresh
water bird and more tame than the wilder sea ducks.

ENGLISH TEAL

NcHion crecca. — (L.) KAUP.

A SINGLE specimen of this European straggler was obtained
by Dr. Coues in 1860. It probably is occasional though rare
at all times and places along our Atlantic coast.

GREEN-WINGED TEAL

Querquedida carolincnsis. — (GM.) STEPH.

WHILE on the coast I had various reports of a " little " duck
common in the inland ponds with "blue" or sometimes
" green " on the wings. It used to be much more common
than it is now, so they told me, and yet, if reports are true,
it is occasionally taken even now on the coast. At any rate,
one specimen was seen by Dr. Coues in 1860.

SUMMER DUCK WOOD DUCK

A ix spoma. — (L.) BOIE.

THERE would seem to be sufficient evidence to record this

Bird- Life in Labrador. 69

species as "occurring in Labrador. The male bird was de-
scribed to me as accurately as if from the specimen before me
by one of the inhabitants. It is not regarded as rare in the
interior and up the river, where it is said to breed.

RED HEAD DUCK POCHARD

Faligula ferina americana. — (EYT.) COUES.

HAVING mislaid my notes on this species most unfortu-
nately I am obliged to trust somewhat to my memory for its
occurrence here, but I certainly saw a magnificent specimen
of this bird not far from St. Augustine, on our downward trip
about September 24. I distinctly remember watching it over
the prow of our vessel as we floated past it so near as almost
to touch it with an oar. We saw others after this, but none
so distinctly. It is probably of frequent occurrence; though
not at all common along the coast.

BARROW'S GOLDEN-EYE

Clangula atbeola. — (Gn.) BP.

COMMON in the rivers as far eastward as Natashquan, and
said to occur in Esquimaux River in mild Winters; as speci-
mens have been shown me from that locality, the supposition
that it is not a rare river duck in that region is not without
foundation in fact; but I cannot speak of it from observation
or record any of its peculiarities, of which I heard very little.

BUFFLE-HEAD BUTTER-BALL
DIPPER DUCK

Clangula albeola. — (L.) STEPH.

THIS bird is known to th inhabitants of Labrador by the
very expressive name of " sleepy diver," from its tameuess
and its slowness of motions while in the water. It is here a
salt water rather than a fresh water bird, and may be shot at
almost any time of the year, as it appears to breed in quite large

70 Bird-Life in Labrador.

numbers. It seems to prefer the heads and mouths of the bay
to the open water between the islands, and one can seldom row
any distance along shore without seeing one or more of them.
It is a very poor diver and so falls an easy prey to the gunner.
The buffle-heads are common all the Fall until the ice sets in,
and seem to like the company of the eiders with which they
associate perhaps more than with any of the other species. It
is quite a family duck, so far as I could judge, keeping in small
clusters, and not venturing far from land; it appeared a timid
and tame rather than a bold and wild bird. It is common all
up and down the Labrador coast, though apparently more so
in Summer and Fall than in the Spring.

LONG-TAILED DUCK SOUTH SOUTHERLY

Old Wife Old Squaw

Harelda glacialis. — (L.) LEACH.

THIS is another not uncommon migrant and also probable
Summer resident in the bays which extend into the interior,
and the mouths of the rivers all along the coast. It is found
in much the same situations as both the preceding and the
following species, though occupying a position about midway
between them. Even if there were no other means of iden-
tifying this as a breeder in Labrador I could so state the fact
from an egg, labeled (and identified beyond question as of
this bird), from the Straits of Belle Isle. This egg was one
of the original collection handed down to me. This and a
ptarmigan's egg were preserved long after the others were
ruined by time's relentless hand. Upon this and other
evidence since procured I can assert, quite positively, that
the old squaw breeds in Labrador ; without doubt quite
commonly. It is called by the natives by the peculiar name
of " coc-caw-wee," and pronounced with an inflection which
is almost precisely that with which one pronounces the well-
known whip-poor-will in the States. The sound is made by
the males. This is the Labrador name for these birds ; an-

Bird-Life in Labrador. 71

other name, used mere in Newfoundland than in Labrador,
though it is occasionally heard here, is that of " houns/7 or
" hounds/7 more likely the former is the correct pronuncia-
tion. The female or the " old wife/7 as it is sometimes called,
resembles greatly the female of the dipper duck or buffle-head.
The marked difference between the two is the absence of white
on the wing of the long-tailed duck ; whether the very young
birds of the two species are distinguishable or not I could not
ascertain. The people on the coast cannot tell you which is
the " sleepy diver," as they call it, and which the long-tailed
duck, or even distinguish the young ; they call them all indis-
criminately " sleepy divers.77 It will never do for a stranger
to dispute them upon any subject upon which, from long expe-
rience, they consider themselves an authority ; nor can they
conceive the possibility of a stranger knowing more than they
about any object concerning which they are at all familiar.

HARLEQUIN DUCK

Histrionicus minutus. — (L.) COTJES.

THIS handsome little fellow frequents the mouths of the
rivers and, perhaps, follows the stream a little distance into
the interior ; also breeds not uncommonly thus all along the
coast. This, with the last-named bird, is regarded as about
equally common as, though rather rarer perhaps than, albeola.
It is confined to the rivers and the river mouths along the
coast. He is a handsome little bird and, with his more mod-
estly-attired mate, goes by the name of " lord and lady.77
The name " houns 77 is also applied to it, probably by some
unsophisticated Labradorian who does not know the difference,
for I am assured, quite positively and on good authority, that
this Newfoundland name, for it appears on good authority
also to be strictly such, is applied only to the long-tailed duck.
I saw several specimens captured near Esquimaux River, but
could learn little of its habits.

72 Bird-Life in Labrador.

EIDER DUCK

Somateria moUissima dresser i. — (SHARPE) COUES.

Ix my recent work I have had considerable to say regard-
ing this and the succeeding species of sea ducks. They have
so many habits in common that it did not seem out of place
to concentrate my sea duck shooting experience upon this
species, and the hunter will be able to judge for himself if I
have unwisely allowed an injustice to this or any succeeding
spacies by so doing. My notes start with the species in early
Spring, after having been hived up for six dreary \Vinter
months three miles in the interior, or at the head of a bay
protruding nearly that far inland. My first Spring ducking
was on the afternoon of Tuesday, April 12, when several of us
drew one of our small, flat boats over the ice to the clear
water beyond and, launching it, started for the gunning point.
We brought home a good bag full of birds that night, and you
may be sure that they were well served and well disposed of
the next day. In describing, in general, the arrival of the
Spring birds, my notes say : Soon the ducks began to fly and
then such sport as we had. The king eider came first in the
season, then the common eider; the former is called the pass-
ing, the latter the laying diK'k. The birds at first fly in large
flocks, often thousands in a flock ; and generally the different
species do not mingle. They have a certain course which they
pursue ; and the shoales over which they fly are called " gun-
ning points." Here the men and boys congregate and, lying
low, behind some rock or cake of ice, await the fight. Some
days the birds fly thickly, others rarely any pass; the weather
and various causes affect the flight. The people see them at
a great distance, and often hear the beating of their wings be-
fore they see them. The birds fly over or along the side of
the station, and the minute the head of the flock has passed
the first or head gunner he rises or turns and fires when all
the others follow suit, then the slaughter begins. Often

J>i rd -Life in Labrador. 73

twenty or thirty birds are thus knocked down by a party of
two or three persons with double-barrel guns. Turning back
a few pages I find the habits of the eiders more fully de-
scribed : Monday, September 27. This morning a party of
us went out in a boat for a short sail, taking our guns with
us. The water was full of birds, especially of ducks and auks.
My attention was called particularly to the . " sea ducks/' of
which we shot several from flocks that chanced to fly near
enough to us. As the sea or eider duck is one of the pecu-
liar residents of this region a few remarks upon it, collected
from the experience of a year's observation, may not be uninter-
esting. The sea duck, as it is here called, and by the word
here I mean all along the coast from Mingan — if not from
Quebec — to Red Bay, and perhaps even beyond the Straits
of Belle Isle, is the eider duck ofj the naturalist. The first
specimens we obtained were shot September 27, and were
young birds. We saw a great many small companies of birds
scattered here and there about the harbor, but they were
generally, at this season, composed of old birds and their
broods of young ; the latter were now large enough to kill
and were excellent eating. In hunting these birds, especially
the old ones, one is obliged to proceed with the greatest caution.
A good-sighted hunter will detect a flock or a single duck,
in rough water even, at a great distance. This is probably due
to the fact of living in a region where one must depend so
much upon eyesight that that sense is remarkably quickened:
the duck also see the hunter almost as quickly as it is seen by
him. When the duck sees any suspicious object it reaches its
neck to its fullest extent and takes a long though careful sight:
if the hunter sees this movement he knows that he is suspect-
ed ; if he at once remains perfectly still, the duck is outwit-
ted, since, not seeing the object move, it supposes that it is
some stone or piece of wood before unnoticed and continues
its feeding ; should the hunter move visibly, ever so little, the
bird takes fright and is off at once. In a clear day a person
peering cautiously over a slight eminence can see, especially

74 Bird-Life in Labrador.

if the water be tranquil, a flock of ducks often a couple of
miles to seaward. A patient hunter will then conceal himself
near some chosen feeding ground, imitate the call of the male
bird, and decoy a flock or single bird quite close and within
shooting distance. The call is whistled, and sounds like the
single, double, or triple call of a snipe, repeated several times
in a sort of guttural tone, if such an expression may be ap-
plied to a whistle ; after every few repetitions there is an ex-
tra low and another similar high note which rounds off the
whistle with that peculiar effect so often practiced by small
boys in trying to roll the tongue, and which enters into the
call of so many water birds. At low and falling tide the
ducks assemble in large colonies on their feeding grounds,
where the water is shallow and the kelp and muscles thick —
generally at evening and in the early morning ; at such times
they will sit upon the rocks and remain there until urged or
driven off; their sight and hearing seem then to be marvelous,
and the slightest noise sends them off into the water. I have
seen them in midday thus sunning and resting themselves, but
they are so watchful that it is rare for you to get near enough
for a shot at them. They dive at the flash of the gun. I
have fired at them, at a rather long gunshot off, and seen them
dive the shot striking the place they had occupied only a sec-
ond previous.

An experienced hunter, when on shore, will get as near to
a flock or a single bird as possible without alarming it and
wait paitently for it to dive, as it so often does while feeding
in apparently safety, when he will run ahead to some shelter
nearer the object of his desire, repeating the operation until
he regards himself as sufficiently near, and then, remaining
standing with his gun at his shoulder, fire at the unconscious
bird when it rises from some long dive, generally killing it.
In the Fall, when a brood of young ducks is surprised, it is
quite easy to secure a large number, though the old birds
generally escape by flight and swimming under the water:
they accomplish this latter act with ease, and often swirn long

Bird- Life in Labrador. 75

distances before appearing at the surface for fresh air. In
the open water a flock of old birds, when approached, will
separate and swim or fly in different directions, while the
young cluster and thus expose themselves directly to the hun-
ter's fire. The best way to pursue both young and old birds
is to drive them into some angular indenture of the surround-
ing islands or land, and then wait for them to appear on the
surface of the water after their long dive. The boat, station-
ed too far away for them to swim clear of it, the hunter has
every chance for bagging his game. I have noticed that
wounded birds do not swim far above eighteen inches to two
feet below the water ; both bill and head are extended for-
ward in a straight line. The old birds will often swim over a
quarter of a mile , if not a full half, beneath the water with-
out appearing to take air. As far as my experience goes, the
birds are rather tame in the Winter season, or at least in the
extreme Fall ; they huddle together in close bunches of from
fifty to several hundred birds, and I am informed that an old
resident once fired into a cluster thus gathered and bagged
fifty-nine birds with a single discharge of his gun, a common
large-bore fowling piece. Occasionally the old female birds,
in full heat, will be shot that have the back and wing coverts
edged with deep rusty brown, and often almost brick red ;
other birds smaller (young), at the same season of the year,
will have the feathers, particularly of the breast, edged with
deep gray; young birds generally have the top of the head
darker and the head much lighter. In some old birds the
whole plumage will be unvaried and of a dark brown color.
Large flocks are usually made up of a number of small fam-
ily broods of from five to seven birds that unite from some
common cause, and then pursue some common flight until
scattered from other causes. The usual feeding grounds of
the eider duck are shallow waters over a bed of sea weed or
mud at some rods from land on its south, southwest, or west
side. They feed principally upon mollusks, barnacles, and a
variety of marine animals life, with an occasional piece of sea

76 Bird-Life in Labrador.

weed, such as may be obtained in the shallow basins of accu-
mulated debris, and on the " land wash," as the land washed
by the tide is here called. In Summer the ducks breed in
large numbers on the islands about the harbors, and though
their numbers are fast decreasing there are still colonies of
them, making their nests of down from their own breasts, be-
neath some overhanging grassy clump, and laying from three
to five olive-colored eggs. The people here will rob the nests
several successive times during a season, while the female con-
tinues to lay eggs in the hope of securing enough to hatch her
brood. When setting, the eider duck remains upon her nest
until the very last moment, then takes a forced rapid Might
and does not appear again until the intruder has disappeared.
To what extent the males assist the femaK s in the matter of
incubation I did not succeed in learning with any degree of
certainty. I do not doubt but that they do so to a limited
extent. They remain upon the coast until the bays are
finally frozen, and are then seen no more until Spring returns
and the ice thaws once again, when they appear in large
flocks in company with the king eider or" king bird " as it is
called. The eggs of the eider duck are everywhere eaten and
are regarded as of very fine flavor. The females and young
birds differ greatly in the " heat" of their plumage, some
having nearly or quite every feather covered with a deep
fringe of warm chestnut

KING EIDER DUCK

Sonuitcria spectabi/is. — (L.) BOIE.

CALLED also, by the natives, the "king bird." This is
the " passing" duck in distinction from the common eider or
"laying" duck. It passes up and down the coast but does
not remain to breed, excepting in rare instances. Its occur-
rence is .thus mentioned in my note : Abundant in Spring in
large flocks. I shot a great many of them. It is said to
breed in this region occasionally. In the Canadian hportx-

Bird- Life in Labrador. 77

man and Naturalist, of July 15, 1881, in an article entitled
" Bird-nesting in Labrador," Mr. Napoleon A. Oomean, a gen-
tleman personally known to the writer, says of a small island
opposite Mingan, which was covered with nests of the com-
mon eider : " Here we first found the nest of its congener,
the king eider (8. speetabilis)." This is, I believe, the first
record of this rare nest found on the Atlantic. We found the
birds abundant in migrations and in immense flocks both in
the Spring and in the Fall. I understood from the natives
that the males and females fly in separate flocks, the latter ap-
pearing a week or ten days later than the former. Their hab-
its appeared to be quite similar to those of the common eider,
especially in the Spring ; but this may be from the fact that
both flocks appear so simultaneously upon the coast that we
were unable to distinguish the species. There are doubtless
many points of difference as well as of semblance between the
species, but we must wait until we know both better before
particularizing.

PACIFIC EIDER

— Somateria v-nigra —

I AM well aware that I censured highly by onithologists
for including this species at all in my list of Labrador birds,
yet I fully believe in its occurrence in all North Atlantic.
Why may not this species visit the Labrador coast as well as
so many others that are not really North Atlantic species ?
The curlew is really not a North Atlantic bird, yet it is
regarded generally as one of the if not the characteristic bird
of Labrador. Of this species my notes say : Abundant in
large flocks in Spring. T obtained specimens that had the
decided " V-shaped black mark," on the chin, and was told
by the natives that there were " three different species of
Spring ducks so near alike that you could hardly tell the
difference." The occurrence of this species has been doubted
by several authorities. I still believe that specimens will be
eventually secured that will prove it unquestionably.

78 Bird-Life in Labrador.

AMERICAN BLACK SCOTER

CSdemia amcricana. — (WiLS.) Sw.

THIS and the two succeeding species are abundant every-
where along the coast of Labrador. There are many points
of similarity in habits of all three with those of the common
eider duck, especially in regard to their feeding habits.
These ducks assemble in large flocks, over some low shoal,
just off laud, to feed. They usually remain at some distance
from land, but are easily decoyed by the voice. The gunner
must remain perfectly still, as they notice the least movement
and are off at once. The present species is said to breed
abundantly in the inland ponds and lakes, as it no doubt does.
I obtained specimens of all three species.

WHITE-WINGED COOT SCOTER
VELVET DUCK

(Edemia fiisca. — (L.) Sw.

COMMOX in Spring and Fall. I did not find it in the
breeding season and do not know as it breeds. Several au-
thorities give it as breeding, and it doubtless does in limited
numbers though much less so than the preceding species. I
do not recollect an authority that found its eggs in Labrador,
though the young birds are frequently obtained. The Spring
and Fall migrants are often found in large flocks, and I have
seen them alight upon some isolated rock, some distance from
land in the water, and blacken its entire apparent surface.
They are very difficult to approach and quick at diving; hard
to kill and not especially good eating. They are decoyed
from shore by the voice and shot like other sea ducks. It is
known by the name of" brass-winged diver."

SURF DUKE SEA COOT

CEdemia perspitillata. — (L.) STEPH.

NEARLY the same remarks which apply to the other two

Bird- Life in Labrador. 79

species apply to this one also, and this and the last if not all
three, associate more or less together. Of its breeding habits
I am unaquaintcd, but believe them to be much like those of
the last species, both being different in many respects prob-
ably from those of americana. It seem to resort more to the
mouths of bays, not going out to sea so much as fusca. The
first specimen I received was from the Indians. It is known
by the name of the " bottle-nosed diver." October 20, at
Old Fort Bay, I obtained a male of an Indian who shot it in
the bay and saw its mate. It is the rarest of the three species
and more common in Spring than in Fall.

MERGANSER GOOSANDER FISH DUCK

Mergus merganser. — (L.)

I SAW a single specimen of this species while on the coast.
Doubtless it occurs rarely, though it is by no means as com-
mon as the succeeding speeies.

RED-BREASTED MERGANSER

Mergus serrator. — (L.)

COMMON in Spring and Fall. Breeds occasionally if not
in localities even abundantly. It is here called the " shell-
bird." It feeds in the fresh water ponds principally, though
I am informed, and I think I have also noticed, that it fre-
quents also the salt water shoals. They are by no means wild
birds and are approached with comparative ease. Those I
saw flew low and rather slowly. One hunter had recently
found a nest with eighteen eggs in it, all good ; he reported
finding nearly that number on several other occasions. I
have taken male, female, and young birds often and find them
an easy bird to shoot and fine eating. They are easily de-
coyed. The usual number of eggs is eight to ten, sometimes
twelve. The males assemble in flocks by themselves while
the females incubate. They are fine swimmers and dive read-

80 Bird-Life in Labrador.

ily and quickly, though they are best and most easily shot
while on the wing. The hunter will readily tell a flock of
u shell birds" from those of any other species at an immense
distance.

HOODED MERGANSER

Mergus cucullatus. — (L.)

RARE, but specimens are occasionally secured in localities
along the coast.

COMMON GANNET SOLAN GOOSE

Sula bassana, — (L. )

COMMON in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on the " bird
rocks/' where they breed in immense numbers. Occasionally
a stray specimen is seen on the Labrador coast, where we en-
countered it a number of times; but it is a rare bird there.

COMMON CORMORANT SHAG

Phafacrocorax carbo. — (L.) LEA OH.

THE Shag Rocks, off* the St. Mary Islands, are the great
abiding place of this and the succeeding species on the coast of
Labrador. Both are found here in equal abundance to all
appearances, and both are called equally the "shag." My notes
on these two species are as follows : Tuesday, May 24: At
eight o'clock we were just oif the St. Mary Islands, having
gone about eighty miles in twelve hours, and, counting the
curvature of the coast, a full hundred and sixty in the last
twenty-four; and yet on we go ! We pass Shag Rocks, a long
row of bare rocks, without vegetation of any kind, \vhere
the cormorants or shags breed in large numbers upon the
ledges of bare rock ; they use their own guano deposits for a
nest. There are two species of cormorants here; the common
cormorant (carbo), and the double-crested cormorant (dilophus) ;

Bird- Life in Labrador. 81

both are called shags, but the latter are generally designated
by the Indian name, which is, I am informed, wapitougan.
Both species appear to breed in equal abundance. I have seen
thousands at a time lining the rocks. They sit upright in rows,
upon the edges of the rocks and cliffs, and seldom one sits be-
hind another, so that, to accommodate them, every edge of
ever crag presents a living fringe of cormorants ; a lively-
looking .trimming just as some shot is fired that sends them
all into the air. The eggs are two to three and, though really
bluish-white in color, are almost invariably covered, more or
less completely, with a calcareous deposit that renders them
white and chalky. At a distance these rocks present the ap-
pearance of being covered with snow, but a nearer approach
shows that this is a covering of guano from the continual
droppings of the birds ; while the tops of the rocks are
thickly imbedded with an accumulation of guano from the
same cause, firmly stamped down by the continual patter ings
of innumerable feet.

DOUBLE CRESTED CORMORANT

Phalacrocorax dilopkus. — (Sw.) NUTT.

THIS species is so associated with the last that it would re-
quire a much closer investigation than any which I had the
time or opportunity to give to separate the habits of the two.
Though both species seem to be equally abundant, this latter
is doubtless the rarer.

POMARINE JAEGER

Stercorarius pomatorhinus. — (TEMM.) LAWK.

As is usually the case, the birds which we are the most eager
to learn about are those of which we can obtain the least in-
formation. All of these jaeger gulls doubtless occur off the
coast of Labrador, and this species has been several times de-
tected by gunners and other persons visiting the coast. I found

8*2 Bird-Life in Labrador.

it near the mouth of Esquimaux River and it doubtless occurs
regularly, though, from its seaward habits, it is seldom cap-
tured. It very often follows the boats and picks up pieces of
refuse that are thrown overboard therefrom. It is not prob-
ably a very common species.

RICHARDSON'S or PARASITIC JAEGER

Stercorarius parasiticus. — (Bnuxx.) (TRAY.

THIS species occurs along the coast also. I obtained it in
the St. Lawrence River, and am sure that it also abounds along
the coast farther down toward the Straits. In flight it is easily
distinguished by the length of its tail feathers. All three of
these species are probably equally common.

BUFFON'S ARCTIC or LONG-TAILED JAEGER

Stcrcoi'ftrius bnffoni. — (BoiE.) COUES.

ONE or two specimens alone are reported. If any of the
three be rarer than the others this one is doubtless the rarest.
Its feathers are very long and slender ; its flight very power-
ful and swift.

GLAUCOUS BURGOMASTER ICE GULL

Larux (laucm. — Buuxx.

THIS large and handsome gull does not appear to be as
common in this its southern terminus of its northern home as
might at first have been expected. Without doubt it occurs
occasionally all along the coast, but it does not appear to be
at any time common. We obtained one of these immense
snow-white fellows on November 5, at Old Fort Bay. It
was sailing about high in the air, and occasionally descend-
ing close to the water to watch for food. It was called
by the natives the " white Winter gull." There was only
the faintest trace of a darker color on the tips of some of the
feathers. The eye was a yellowish white; bill white with a
purple tinge, horn color at base. Legs and feet almost white ;

Bird-Life in Labrador. 83

claws horn color to dusky. Shafts of quills of a most beauti-
ful straw color. The bird showed unusual signs of tameness
for one so naturally wild ; it was probably reduced from hun-
ger. Its graceful sailing with an occasional downward swoop
were most beautiful displays of its immense wing power.
The length of the one we captured was twenty-nine inches,
its extent nearly sixty-four inches, the wing itself from its
flexure being nearly twenty inches.

GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL

Larus marinus. — (L.)

THIS is the "great bald eagle " of Labrador and the gull
tribe, and a veritable rascal he is. The largest of the gulls
and but little inferior in dimensions to the eagle itself, he
sails high in the air and tyrannizes over all that are beneath
him. So high does he sail that even extra large wired cart-
ridges fail to reach him ; or, if they reach, he laughs \vith a
shrill laughter at the leaden rain that patters, harmlessly,
against or through his plumage. A swoop, and he has sailed
unhurt away from the very muzzle of your gun before you
have had even a chance to cover him; as knowing as a crow,
he is often within shot yet you can rarely ever shoot him.
Labrador is the home of this snowy, black-backed king of
birds. Here he breeds in all the harmless security of low
islands, in nests scraped together from the topmost knoll of his
island home, and often a few feet only from the very water's
edge. The nest and eggs are very difficult to distinguish from
those of the herring gull, which also breeds in abundance
with this species, the two nests being often almost side by side.
The eggs are usually given by authorities as being only three,
but I am positive that I have found four a number of times.
They resemble those of the herring gull both in size and
shape. While we are examining the nest and eggs in their ex-
posed situation, often upon the almost bare rock; the owner is
soaring in majestic beauty way, way up in the heavens far above

84 Bird-Life in Labrador.

our heads, silently watching the threatened destruction of his
or her treasure. Sometimes he utters a harsh and malicious
aw-awk, aw-awk! as he seems to anticipate the destruction and
to throw a malediction upon the destroyer. Sometimes this
malicious laugh is turned into an impish chuckle of hawc-
hawe-hawc ! hawc-hawe-hawc ! hawe-huwc-hawc-hawc ! as he
flies swiftly out of sight or remains upon motionless pinion
watching his tormentor. I have often noticed a sound like
that made by many of our hawks, seemingly proceeding from
this species, when sailing high up in the air, sounding like a
shrill kce with a much lower aw, as Itee-aw kee-aw. I am sure
that I have seen them on the coast in large numbers the last
of August and thought they seemed much wilder than more
early in the season, perhaps from the fact that they were
probably preparing to leave en masse on their trip southward.
The hunters shoot the bird in characteristic manner. They
thoroughly conceal themselves among the high cliffs of some
jutting crag near the sea, and with gun ready fire the moment
one appears overhead. They aim to break the wing bone as
this cripples the bird, and if not securing him then renders a
second shot effective at short range. Many an old as well as
young bird have I seen tumble from an almost incredible
height by this process. By and by the birds become wary of
the locality, then the hunter changes his position. When at
sea in a boat or schooner, they are often tolled near to in
cloudy weather or just at dusk by throwing offal overboard,
especially pieces of cod liver; the birds are attracted by its
sight and smell and venture within shot for the sake of the to
them palatable prize. The great black-backed gull is a
characteristic bird of Labrador. On every clear day hundreds
of them may be seen, like so many sentinels, sitting upon
every peak or solitary water-bound rock, sunning themselves
while yet alert to everything around them. But one must see
them in all the grandeur of their native home to fully realize
their attractions. I have often dreamed of being wafted about
in vast colonies of these snowy creatures, sporting for a mo-

Bird-Life in Labrador. 85

nient in the atmosphere of a real world of rocks, crags, and
water, to be the next moment fading dimly into outline and
nothingness, to a dream-world pure, while I was just awaken-
ing— to the realities of the present.

COMMON HERRING GULL

Larus argentatus smithsonianus. — COUES.

THIS is the most abundant of the gulls upon the Labrador
coast, and seems to be everywhere common. I have found
them living in colonies and literally swarming upon every crag
and rocky resting place in Southern Labrador. I shall never
forget the year of 1875, when I made my first visit to the coast.
From the Bird Rocks we made Mecattina Islands ; from these
we skirted along the coast, inside of the smaller islands, to St.
Augustine ; everywhere the gulls flew about and around us
like puffs of white, fleecy clouds. Every resting place seemed
covered with them and, in one locality, we passed through a
narrow inlet and ascended a small rigoulette with high cliffs
above us and rocks everywhere around us. Here we land-
ed many times and pursued the birds or hunted for nests and
eggs while the air was filled with the noise of their wings,
and the birds themselves as they flew here and there seeking
security from their unwonted intruders. The birds jvvere hard
to shoot for, although there were so many, they flew so high
that our shot would scarce reach them ; yet we secured a few
of the many thousands seen. The herring gulls seem to breed
in colonies mnch like the auks and puffins, at least we found
them so. They are doubtless scattered all along the coast, in
colonies of from ten to a thousand. I did not find them on
the coast in Winter, and judge that they begin their southward
migration about the first week in September or thereabouts.
Their nests are built usually on the bare rocks of the low is-
lands or cliffs everywhere along the coast. They make quite
a nest of bits of moss, dried grasses, and like material, appar-
ently scraped together from just around the locality where

86 Bird-Lift in Labrador.

the nest is situated. The eggs are usually three, though I am
confident that I found four on more occasions than one.
These gulls appear to have no special time for depositing their
eggs, excepting, of course, keeping within the usual limits of
the breeding season to this locality. We found fresh eggs
and young birds in nests closely situated to each other.
Young birds appeared early in the season and fresh eggs late
in the season. I do not remember to have found, as I have
among the bank swallows, instances of perfectly fresh eggs
and young birds in the same nests, but the case was almost as
bad from a scientific standpoint at least. With the young birds
of all the larger species of gulls, the sailors make great pets.
They rear them and the birds become quite tame and know
their owners, at least sufficiently to come when they are called
to be fed, and to be wary when called at any other time or by
any other person. The young birds grow well in confine-
ment, and feed greedily upon small fish and scraps of refuse
fish and other articles of food. At nearly all times of the
day and in all weathers these birds, with others of the same
family, hover about the waters in large numbers looking for
food or sail placidly about the wraters of the bays or open sea,
near the islands, sometimes in fiocks of many hundreds.
They are either very tame or very wild. I have noticed that
the wildest of them will be enticed within gunshot by the
prospect of food or pieces of garbage thrown overboard for
this purpose from the vessel's galley. Hundreds of them hung
about our vessel's stern, especially at dusk, both while anch-
ored in some pleasant and quiet harbor and while on excur-
sions up or down the coast. When fishing they pounce di-
rectly upon their prey, which they grasp with both feet. I
have repeatedly seen specimens of either this or the great
black-backed gull, perhaps both, pounce upon and grapple a
fish too large for them to secure, and have watched the fight
with great interest. Usually the gull succeeds in securing its
victim. I am told that occasionally they fasten upon a large
salmon from which they cannot break loose, and that both

Bird- Life in Labrador. 87

are eventually dragged under the water and either one or both
overcome and drowned. These (and other gulls) are generally
most abundant at low tide, when they collect in large bodies
and rest upon the rocks or swim in the waters just off shore.
They are dreaded by the duck hunters, as they are alarmed at
the slightest appearance of danger, and frighten off every par-
ticle of game by their cries and wariness. Though at times
and in some places they are quite tame they are more often
wilder than the wildest hawks. They are hunted in the same
way as are the former species.

KITTIWAKE GULL

Rissa tridactyla. — (L.) BP.

WHILE on the coast I several times saw a small gull that
might have been, and probably was, of this species. It is
doubtless of rather rare occurrence, and as it has been noted
several times by other authorities it seems best to include it
as a regular visitor in Spring and Fall, and doubtless breed-
ing occasionally.

BONAPARTE^S GULL

Chroieocephalw phiiaddphia. — (OuD.) LAWK.

I FOUND this handsome little gull abundant all along
the Labrador coast, more so, perhaps, in Southern Labrador,
yet it was apparently common in the farthest northern local-
ity we visited. It is a handsome little fellow, and its grace-
ful and well-sustained beating flight made it a great favorite
with those on shipboard. We often practiced firing at them,
and their tameness and apparently unsuspecting and confiding
nature almost shamed us for the wanton destruction not wan-
ton, for we preserved as many as them as we could secure in
good condition. Off the Fox and Mecattine islands, off
Natashquan and other neighboring places, we often found
this gull in flocks of say from five hundred to a thousand.

88 Bird-Life in Labrador.

They were very tame. A short clause from my notes reads :
To-day we all put off Nabisippi. We spent the time lying
to about a mile off shore and shooting at the gulls, of which
large numbers surrounded us. It was the species known as
Bonaparte's gull, which abounds about the shoal waters and
fishing grounds everywhere along this part of the coast. I
cannot find any record of its breeding in Labrador, though it
doubtless does breed here.

ARCTIC TERN

titeDia nidcrura. — XAUM.

I SUPPOSE both this species and the next to come under the
general name of " steerines," given them by the native fisher-
men. They appear common along the coast, at least from
Esquimaux River and Mingan, where I saw vast flocks of
them flying swiftly, apparently on their southern Fall migra-
tion. They do not seem to remain to breed.

COMMON or WILSON'S TERN

Sterna hit undo. — And. —

ONE or two specimens of this species have been secured in
Labrador, but it does not appear to be anywhere near as com-
mon as its neighbor, the Arctic tern.

FULMAR FULMAR PETREL

Fulmarufi glaciallx. — (L.) STEPII.

THIS species doubtless occurs more or less abundantly all
along the coast, but its peculiar habit of remaining at a great
distance off shore, and its only occasional occurrence, render
it very rare of capture. It has been recorded in one or two
instances and doubtless it, with others of the same family, are
regular visitants.

Bird-Life in Labrador. 89

LEACITS PETREL

Gymochorea leucorrhoa. — (V.) COUES.

MORE or less common, at least all through the gulf, and
one of the standbys, especially in " squally " weather. I
doubt if any breed. I do not recollect seeing it close in
shore on the Labrador coast, though I see no reason why it
may not be common here as in the neighboring waters where
it was met wit': regularly.

GREATER SHEARWATER

major. — FABER.

THIS is the hagdown or hagdon of Labrador, and more or
less common, just off shore, all along the coast. I have seen
them frequently and watched their strong, graceful flight.
They followed our vessel in rough weather flying to and fro
across our stern and bows for hours at a time. I secured
specimens from the local hunters on shore, and am convinced
that it is a regular visitor. As I know so little of its general
occurrence I will not attempt to describe it further from pres-
ent knowledge of its habits.

SOOTY SHEARWATER

Puffinus fuliginosus. — A. STEICKL.

A FEW were seen by Dr. Coues on the Labrador coast.
They were in company with P. major. The habits of all
these species are probably not unsimilar. The sailors are said
to call this the," black hagdon."

LOON GREAT NORTHERN DIVER

Colymbus torquatus. — BRUNN.

THIS is an abundant bird in Labrador, where it breeds in
the inland ponds and lakes there so frequently to be met with.

DO J^i I'd- Life hi

Along the seacoast the bird .seems to be couinioii also, and is
often seen either flying high in the air when it much resem-
bles a Canada Goose with its long neck and short, tapering
wings, or in the water just out of gunshot from the shore. Jt
is always a hard bird to shoot, but the natives have a strange
theory regarding its diving at the flash. They say that if you
can creep up to one without its first seeing you you can easilv
shoot it when it is not looking at you. In proof of this a«-
sertion native gunners, time and again, brought me birds (and
I ofien saw them shot at a single discharge of the gun) which
they declared were so killed. I, with others, have chased
these birds for hours together, in a boat about the harbors and
bays, shooting at them as they emerged from a long dive only
to redive with a swiftness that continually baffled us. Loons
are very common in the early Spring, both flying and in the
open water of the bays and harbors or just oft* the islands
outside. Strangely enough the natives, who will eat almost
anything eatable, Avill not touch the loon, though the young
bird is extremely good eating, at least we, who hud been shut
up fcr six months of Winter with little or no fresh meat,
found them so in Spring. A good number of eggs were re-
ported to me \vhile on the coast, though I do not remember
positively of seeing any of them.

RED THROATED DIVER

Tins species doubtless occurs, though the next, although a
very rare bird, is often found in this region. One of the
priests from Bersamis informed me that he knew of several
captures of the latter.

BLACK-THKOATED DIVER

Colyinbus

SKVKIJAL well-authenticated instances of the capture of

Bird-Li/e in Labrador. 91

this species have come under my observation, and I am told
that at the museum at Bersamis there are several specimens
taken from these waters, one having been taken the same year
I was there (1880). The same parties left with me the im-
pression that there were also eggs of this bird in the same
place, though I was unable to verify the statement or hypoth-
esis at the time.

AMERICAN RED NECKED GREBE

Podiccps yriseiyena holbcdli.. — (REINH.) CoUES.

TITLS is called locally the u Wabby," and much resembles
a small loon in its flight and general appearance. It occurs
more to the southward, and breeds occasionally on the islands
with other sea birds. It is by no means rare, yet can hardly
be called common.

RAZOR BILLED AUK TINKER TURRE

Utamania torda. — (L.) LEACH.

REGARDING this and the succeeding characteristic birds of
Labrador a book could well be written, but we must pass them
by with notices merely brief but to the point. With regard
to the razor-billed auk, the " tinker " or " turre ?J^as it is of-
ten called, I have noticed them breeding at the Fox Islands,
offKekarpwei River, in almost as large colonies as the " para-
keets " off Parakeet or Greenley Island. I noticed them,
also, in thousands about several other small islands, and found
that this species was always very abundant about this locality
while much rarer and replaced by the foolish guillemot or
" murre " farther northward. Here they breed in the crev-
ices of the rocks, long, deep, and narrow clefts being sought.
I did not find but a single egg in a nest, but was repeatedly
told by the inhabitants that, if I took the eggs, the birds
" will lay again another day." The people here systematically
take all the eggs they can find regularly twice a week through-

92 Jtird-LiJe in Labrador.

out the breeding season, and find the birds -so wonderfully ac-
commodating that the last batch taken is nearly :>s numerous
as the first. The " turres " associate with both the " murrcs "
and the black guillemots. The egg of the latter bird, though
smaller and otherwise distinct, is not unsinnlar in appearance,
and often the two are found breeding side by side, though sel •
dom in any very great numbers. The razor-billed auks are
among the first birds to be seen on approaching the Labrabor
coast. We found them much more abundant in Southern
than in Northern Labrador. With both the razor-billed auk
and the foolish guillemot considerable similarity of habits
appear to exist ; possibly this results from the fact that both
species are so numerous that the chances of individualizing
them is reduced to the shape of the bill as seen at short range
only, but regarding the flight and habits of the two I know
of no one who has satisfactorily, to me at least, distinguished
between them. We saw thousands of both species ; they
passed and repassed us so rapidly and so thoroughly bewild-
ered us, as they seemed to be bewildered themselves, that I
could not tell surely in describing either species whether the
remark applied equally to both or exclusively to one. It ap-
peared to me that both were remarkably similar in habits.
On approaching the coast we saw single birds or long lines of
them flying here and there in a frightened manner close to or
a little above the water, often almost touching the waves with
their wings as they veered or rose and fell in undulations like
the billowy crests beneath them. They were never wild, but
flew directly over our vessel or across her bows with as much
freedom as along the surface of the sea on either side of us.
Their flight was strong and well-sustained, the beats of their
wings rapid and powerful. At times they would turn from
side to side quickly, so as to show alternately their white bel-
lies and their black backs. They appeared to prefer a long
straight line from which, if they veered at all, it was suddenly
and in a right-angled direction. The nearer we approached
the coast the more abundant they became. They filled the

Bird-Jjife In Labrador. 93

waters and the air around about and above us. We could
have shot hundreds from the deck of our schooner, as she
bowled along, without apparently diminishing the number
about us or frightening off those already around. They would
often drop suddenly, as if shot, to the water beneath them,
where they would remain, evidently perfectly at home, keep-
ing pace with us almost with their swift swimming or diving
with incredible alacrity and remaining beneath the water for
several minutes to appear in some direction contrary to that
looked for to continue their gambols, or to take wing as sud-
denly as they took to the water and disappear in the distance.
On the approach of stormy or foggy weather this species, or
its neighbor the foolish guillemot, I could not learn which,
though perhaps it is a habit of both species, assemble in large
numbers near some shoal, out at sea a little ways, and seem to
go through with a sort of mock caucus or citizens' assembly,
each bird uttering a hoarse, rasping note that together can be
heard a mile away. From the resemblance of the sound to
the word used, the people call them, at such times, " gudds,"
and the noise reminds one more of the wrrangling of human
voices at a " town meeting " than of anything else that I can
imagine. Nor at these " meetings " did the sound of our guns
seem to frighten them in the least ; they would simply move
off, in a body, farther to sea, and then continue tlieir strange
manoeuvres even more fiercely than ever. When in flying
they wish to turn in some contrary direction, they open and
shut the feathers of the tail as if, thereby, to more surely direct
or assist their motions. The people shout and wave their hats
at them and call out " turn-about, turn-about/' or " gtidd,
gudd, giuld," and various other words and expressions, think-
ing thereby, so they say, that the birds will turn and fly di-
rectly at them, and in fact it seems as if they often did this
very thing., Many a fine hour's sport have I had practicing
upon these same fellows while on the wing, and it requires a
good gun and a heavy charge to/ kill, at the first shot, these
tough, hardy birds, yet we often ate the flesh of their breasts,

94 Bird-Life in Labrador.

when thoroughly boiled, and found them very good and not
at all fishy. I will not attempt to describe the eggs of this
bird. When once seen they can never be mistaken for the
eggs of any other species with which I am acquainted. The
ground color is white, and there are black scrawls all over its
surface chiefly concentrated into a blotched ring at the greater
end, with rarely any markings at all on the smaller end.
They are deposited anywrhere in clefts of rocks, in open situa-
tions, and wherever the bird happens to be when desirous of
laying. The breeding habits of this bird are, like their other
habits, to me at least, so similar to those of the foolish guille-
mot, that I must leave the discriminating between them more
closely for others.

COMMON PUFFIN PARRAKEET

Fratercida arctica. — (L.) STKPH.

HOWEVER similar in habits the razor-billed auk and fool-
ish guillemot may be, it is different with the puffin, another
of Labrador's characteristic birds, which has habits peculiar
to itself. We found the puffin occasional only as we ap-
proached the Labrador coast, and occasionally only until we
reached its vast breeding places, the Parrakeet and Greenley
Islands, just within the mouth of the Straits of Belle Isle.
Here they congregated in tens of thousands, nor was hardlv
a single bird seen until we were within half a mile of the Is-
land, then they rose, of one accord, and, as if with a common
impulse, began circling around their abode and nesting-place.
If there were one hundred birds there were as many thou-
sand. They flew above, about, and around us ; they lined the
waters, they sat like sentinels upon the shore and rocks, like
flies on a plate of molasses, or hornets about a sugar-barrel.
They seemed utterly bewildered by our presence ; and so tame
that we could almost catch them or pick them up in our hand.
They had tunneled the ground with their holes in every direc-
tion, and hundreds peered cautiously from these burrows or

Bird-Life in Labrador. 95

flew from them to join the dense black ring that wound around
and around the island. Their burrows extended far into the
loamy earth of which the island was composed, notwithstand-
ing the impediments in the shape of rocks everywhere, above
and below the ground. I doubt if man or animal could have
picked its way across this island without stepping upon or
breaking the earth's crust into one of these holes. They are
made by the bird itself, aided by its strong bill and sharp and
powerful claws. They are about the size of the body of the
bird or a little larger, and generally from two to three feet
deep. They wind and bend and often intermingle, much as
in the case of the well-known bank swallow. At the extrem-
ity is a very little dried grass and a single white egg, with sel-
dom any other marks excepting perhaps a few obsolete scrawls
or spots, and a general bluish or brownish tint often replacing
the otherwise white shell. My notes add a few remarks which
may be of interest : A great trick of the Labradorians is to
get a greenhorn to stick his hand into one of the burrows of
this bird when the bird is supposed to be within. If you ex-
amine carefully the bill — of horn, nearly two inches in length
and about the same in height — you will see that a most alarm-
ing pair of forceps may be thus put into motion, and, as the
bird is one of the fiercest of its kind, can readily imagine why
the victim never repeats the experiment. The number of
birds that I saw on Greenley Island was simply immense, and
could never have been counted. I have often seen the water
covered with a clustered flock, all engaged in making the
hoarse, rasping sound that has been mentioned before and is
not unlike the filing of a saw, that is made by both the auks,
and which gives all alike the name of " gudds." When on
the wing I seldom if ever saw them mix with other birds.
Though they appear in large numbers at stated times, they
disappear or rather disperse after breeding almost as suddenly
as they came ; yet stragglers do not leave until the harbors
are nearly or quite blocked up with ice. At Greenley Island,
although there is a large fish-canning establishment, houses,

96 Bird- Life in Labrador.

and a lighthouse on the northeast end, these birds occupy the
other side unmolested and are seldom interfered with by gun-
ners ; yet the island is scarcely three-quarters of a mile long
and even less than half a mile wide. The flight of the puffin
is swift as an arrow. It has no notes that I could perceive.
When in the water it is obliged to rush over the surface some
feet, flapping its wings and apparently paddling vigorously be-
fore it can gain sufficient impetus to take flight. When sitting
sentinel-like on some rock, previous to taking a downward
plunge into the air to wing, it reminds one greatly of pictures
of auks and penguins, which birds they greatly resemble in
many respects. We found the breasts of this bird when made
into a soup and boiled thoroughly not bad eating, though
much tougher than were the auks we tried.

SEA DOVE

Uc niriratix. — LINK

THIS little fellow is very common some years in the waters
about the islands and harbors all along the Labrador coast.
My notes say : From October 15, until the ice sets in, I found
them common everywhere in the waters of the bays and har-
bors, and they are generally quite tame. The people on the
coast regard their arrival as a sign of cold weather ; but it
certainly did not prove to be the case this year, since the birds
were unusually abundant and the Winter an unusually mild
one. The popular and local name is pronounced as if spelled
" bun-num." The birds associate with the black guillemot
and possesses with it many habits in common. It dives at the
flash of the gun, swims long distances under water, but is gen-
erally very tame and quite easy 10 approach, though quick in
its movements. I have seen them killed with an oar, after a
long chase in a boat. When first taking flight they half fly
and half push themselves along the surface of the water, since
their small wings and unequally balanced bodies make it ex-
tremely difficult for them to fly freely. I have seen one pur-

Hi I'd- Life in Labrador. 97

sued in a boat by a number of men, who amused themselves
by throwing the oars and pieces of wood, together with the
ballast of the boat, at it, and yet not a single missile hit its
mark since the bird was able to dodge each article thrown at
it by diving and appearing in a most unexpected direction ;
the bird was scarcely a dozen yards away, yet it escaped un-
harmed. I have noticed nearly all the changes of plumage in
this bird that I have seen in the pigeon guillemot during the
first year, though the head, so far as I have seen, is always
black. It is a familiar little fellow, and seldom killed, unless
scarcity of food demands even this small morsel.

BLACK GUILLEMOT PIGEON

Una grylle. — (L.) BRUNN.

MY notes read : Friday, the loth. I became quite well
acquainted to-day with the " pigeon," as it is here called,
otherwise known as the black guillemot. This little bird is
one of the most abundant of the waterfowl, next to the eider
ducks, puffins, and murres, that we have upon the coast.
Near St. Augustine \ve saw this bird for the first time, though
it is found in Winter all along the Atlantic seaboard as far
south as New Jersey, growing more and more rare as it
approaches the latter place. I have seen them everywhere in
the waters in and about the islands, though never very far from
land, from the opening of the bay in the spring until the ice
closes the last open waters early in December. I have found
several stages of plumage of this bird (referable to the differ-
ent ages) which takes three years to mature. A very extraor-
dinary form marks the second year's growth. The whole plu-
mage is inky black, both above and below, and with white
blotches imperfectly rounded, the size of an ordinary thimble
head, scattered irregularly all over its body ; the bill is black-
ish carmine ; the legs and feet dusky carmine ; the wings with
a pure white patch as usual. I think the white tail feathers
were present, but am not sure on this point. I cannot learn if

98 Bird-Life in J^

this plumage appears at any other time than in the Fall of the
year; in this dress the birds are rare here, and apparently pass
its stages in some wild place, or region where they are not easily
detected. The hunters about the coast told me that these
spotted birds were very rare. In the early Fall the pigeon is
quite tame, but grows wilder as the cold weather advances.
AVhen pursuing them with a boat they are at times easy to ap-
proach, while others most difficult, and they are often very
wild without any apparent reason. The pigeon will usually
dive " at the flash " ; but often, especially when feeding, it
allows you to approach quite near to it. In feeding the bird
bends its neck forward and dips its beak into the water ; at
this time, when the head is turned forward and a little away
from the hunter the latter is generally sure of securing his
game. Sometimes the pigeon takes wing nearly as soon as it
perceives a boat approaching, and it is then impossible to get
within shooting distance of it ; its flight is at such times rapid
but easy, generally low and in a straight line. AVhen tame
they usually escape by diving rather than by flight and by
swimming long distances under the water ; they do this easily
and In any direction they may choose. When wounded they
often dive, as do many of the duck family, swim or sink to
the bottom, and, clinging to the seaweed, die there. I have
oiten watched them dive at such times and never return.
On still, warm days they stay near the land feeding, often in
large numbers. In large flocks specimens showing a greater
or less degree of albinism may be frequently taken or seen.
When flying low over the water a long distance away, if fired
at and not hit, I have seen them drop suddenly to the water
and dive, thus escaping the hunter who does not know, at so
great? a distance, in what direction to watch for their reappear-
ing.- The flesh, especially of the young bird, is excellent eat-
ing, and for this reason they are shot in great numbers; they
are regarded as the hardest bird to kill, next to the loons, that
dwell here. The pigeon breeds in large numbers on several
of the small islands'along'the coast. On one island a colony of

Jtird-Life in Labrador. 99

these birds breed exclusively. They lay usually three eggs in
some exposed situation, or in the cleft of some rock, making
no nest, and seem to let the sun do the greater share of the
hatching ; they are oblong and ovoid in shape, tapering sud-
denly, the ground color being from greenish to pure white,
and the varied streaks and blotches or spots scattered more or
less thickly all over their surface, especially so in a concentric
ring around the tip of the egg, are of black or various shades
of brown. Nearly all the birds of this family have what are
apparently purplish spots upon their eggs, but these are black
primarily and appear purple only from a slight covering of
the white lime of the shell itself. If the lime be scraped away
the spots will show up black.

COMMON or FOOLISH GUILLEMOT MURRE

Lomria troilc. — (L.) BRDT.

BEFORE reading the present remarks upon this species one
should compare the notes as given upon its congener the razor-
billed auk. The egg is noted for its variable size and the
nature of its markings. I have taken them all the way from
pure white, though an endless series of blotches, and waved
lines of black, purple, and brown, to almost pure green and
even a delicate pink barely spotted or marked at the larger
end. The people on the coast cannot tell whether either the
turre or murre lays more than a single egg, or whether they
sit upon their eggs or allow the sun to hatch them. I have
been told, on apparently good authority, that they do sit
upon their eggs, and consequently are furnished with a large,
bare place upon the lower belly, where they have picked the
feathers from themselves in order to make the proper hollow
in their downy covering for the egg to rest in ; but I failed to
notice the spot upon any of the birds shot. I could not ascer-
tain, either, the period of incubation. While laying to, one
morning, off the Fox Islands, near the Mecattina Islands, sev-
eral of us landed and filled our pails with murres' eggs, while

100 Bird-Life in Labrador.

with our guns we shot nearly a hundred of the birds in little
less than an hour ; and yet we left them flying as thickly over
and by the island as when we had iirst landed. We boiled
some of the eggs and found them excellent eating. They are
not quite as rich in flavor as the hens' eggs, but certainly equal
to them for eating purposes, especially to hungry men.

THICK BILLED or BRUNNICITS GUILLEMOT

Lomvia arm. — (PALL.) COUES.

THIS bird doubtless occurs in abundance with the other
species, but we did not, at the time, discriminate between
them. The species was so indefinitely mentioned by our orni-
thologists generally that we had not looked for it.

-Lie in Labrador

APPENDIX.

AUDTTBON visited Labrador in the Summer of 1833, with his youngest
son and four companions whose names have been handed down to us as
Thomas Lincoln, William Ingalls, Gworge Shattuck, and Joseph Coolidge.
The schooner Ripley was chartered in Boston, and the party sailed from
Eastport, Me., on June 6. The course which they pursued the writer fol-
lowed in 1875 and again in 1882, and from Audubon's journal accounts
must have had nearly the same experiences from fog, wind, and weather.
In one of the harbors Audubon met Captain Bayfield, then prosecuting his
survey of the Canadian coast. This was, I believe, at Natashquan. Even
the great naturalist can become facetious upon occasions, as the following
remark will show: "The seals are carried home on sledges drawn by Es-
quimaux dogs," he says, "which are so well trained that, on reaching home,
they push the seals from the sledges with their noses and return to the kil-
lers with regular dispatch." He adds, however, " This, reader, is hear-
say !" July 23, he visited the sealing establishment of Mr. Robertson.
July 26, he came opposite Bonne Esperance, but, as the pilot did not know
the harbor and it was dark, he passed on to Bradore. He speaks of ice-
bergs bearing rocks beneath them, " hundreds of tons," and depositing
them wherever they stand and melt or go to pieces. But we must pass on
to other matter, and, taking my own list as a basis of comparison, surely
an allowable proceeding for any writer, will see what additions can be
made to it from outside sources, in order to make it a true exposition, as
far as possible to date, of our knowledge of the subject. I am helped in
this by Mr. Lucien M. Turner's very excellent resume of the subject, en-
titled : " List of the Birds of Labrador, including Ungava, East Main,
Moose, and Gulf Districts of the Hudson Bay Company, together with the
Island of Anticosti," to be found in the " Proceedings of the United States
National Museum," volume 8, 1883, page 233. In this he reviews what has
been said upon the subject of Labrador birds by Audubon, Nuttall, Rich-
ardson, Kumlein, and others.

On the authority of Audubon we may add Wilson's thrush (young, July
20), both the kinglets (breeding), red-bellied nuthatch (rare : " one which
had probably been driven there by a storm " ), winter wren (Southern
Labrador, July 20), black and yellow warbler (breeding), cerulean warbler
("a dead one"), blackburnian warbler ("several"), red-poll warbler
(plentiful), Canadian fly-catching warbler (breeding), white-eyed vireo
( " few were seen"), bnnk swallow ("said to be plentiful on the South

1

Bird-Life in Labrador.

•

shore" ). Lincoln's finch ("found young, July 4" ), SAVHIDJ) sparrow
("abundant"), chewink ("northward to Labrador"), common crow
( " tew" ), kingbird ( "breeding" ), pewee flycatcher ( "breeding" ), olive-
sided flycatcher, wood pewee, least ftycatcher ( "nesting" ), ruby-throated
humming bird ( " few " ), yellow-billed cuckoo ( " few " ), black-billed cuckoo
(with a question as to the exact locality), pigeon hawk ( "the eggs in three
instances, which occurred at Labrador, were five" ), marsh hawk ( "saw it
in Labrador" ), ruffed grouse ( " from Maryland to Labrador" ), American
oyster-catcher ("found several breeding"). Turner credits Audubon
with " Garia alba, ivory gull," white-winged gull ("few"), least tern
i "breeding: Southern shore"). I strongly suspect that many of these
were discovered along the northern portions of the Province of Quebec —
the north shore of the River and Gulf of St. Lawrence I mean — north of
Natashquan and south of Blanc Sablon, the line of Labrador proper.

On the authority of Mr. C. Drexler and Mr. James McKenzie, many spe-
cies were found at Moose Factor}- ; these occur so near Labrador that they
are of interest from the possibility of their crossing the line into the inte-
rior of this peninsula. In the true acceptation of the word they are not,
Labrador birds, as can be easily proved. Black and white creeper (two
specimens, Drex. ), Cape May warbler (one, Drex.), Summer yellow bird
(one, Ft. George, Drex.), bay-breasted warbler (one, Drex.), small-billed
water thrush (one, Drex.), Philadelphia vireo (one, Drex.), cedar waxwing
(one, Drex.), purple finch (Drex.), Lincoln's finch ("specimens," Drex.),
least flycatcher (Drex.), belted kingfisher (one, Drex.); saw-whet owl (one,
Me K.), broad-winged hawk (one, McK.); passenger pigeon (one, Drex.);
great blue heron (one, McK.); American bittern (breeding, Drex.), Wil-
son's snipe ( "specimens at Rupert House," Drex.), sora rail (Drex.); Cas-
pian tern (one, McK.).

Mr. Turner's own list, made for the most part at Fort Chimo and Un-
g.iva, Northern Labrador, is very valuable. He records : Alice's thrush
("common, breeds") white wagtail or Motacilla alba (" four individu-
als" ), bay-breasted warbler ( "three, black river, Hamilton Inlet, July 9,
1SS2"), small-billed water thrush ("several"), great northern shrike
("not common, breeds "), barn swallow (" breeds at head of Hamilton
inlet" ), white-winged crossbill ("abundant, breeds" ), mealy redpoll A.
honiemanni and greater redpoll A. horn, rostrata (" common in Win-
ter" ), white-rumped redpoll A. horn, exilipes and common redpoll A. II-
tiaria (" abundant and resident"), goldfinch ("occurs in southern por-
tions of Labrador" ), Lincoln's finch ( "rare" ), black Canada jay ( "resi-
dent and Breeds, coastwise and interior"), ruby-throated hummingbird
(one), black-backed and banded-backed three-toed woodpeckers I "common
and resident ' ), yellow-shafted flicker and short-eared owl ("common in
Summer only" ), dusky horned owl />. rirginianns scitiiTdttis ( "not rare,
resident" ), the gerfalcons //. /.s7^/a/»r».s-, //. nixticohix, and //, rusticohis

Jiird- Life in

i, duck hawk, osprey ( "on Northwest River " ), goshawk, rough-
1 egged hawk ( " light and dark " ), golden eagle ( " breeds " j, ruffed grouse,
greater and lesser yellow-legs, red and northern phalarope, Virginia rail
( " one, Hamilton Inlet" ), coot ( "one, Nain " ), whistling swan 0 colum-
Iriana ( " occasional " ), greater snow goose ( " occasional " ), green-winged
teal, Barrow's golden-eye, American golden-eye, Sabine's gull ("one"),
Arctic tern, Richardson's jigger, fulmar ( " abundant from Cbidley to Belle
Isle" ), stormy petrel ( " two" ), Wilson's and Leach's petrel ( " Atlantic,
Labrador"), red-throated diver also loon (not rare), [razor-billed auk.
Common puffin, and common guillemot, not observed in Hudson's Straits],
sea dove, black guillemot, Mandt's guillemot, Briinnich's guillemot ( " com-
mon, breeds in Hudson Straits " ). Besides these Turner also mentions as
common in Northern Labrador the majority of the species whiqh are
known to be common in Southern Labrador.

Still further we, have Kurnlein's recor;d of the purple finch ( "one on
shipboard off Resolution Island " ), goldfinch 8. tristis ( "on shipboard off
Cape Mugford " ), and cinereous shearwater ( "Common from Belle Isle to
Grinnell Bay"). Richardson's of the sharp-shinned hawk ("one near
Moose Factory" ). Nuttall's of the fish hawk ( "from Labrador" ), and
bald eagle as " breeding and rearing their young ,in all the intermediate
space from Nova Scotia to Labrador." Elliott Coues of the possible oc-
currence of the sparrow hawk, though I have grave doubts of this little fel-
low as reaching true Labrador north of Blanc Sablon, "a single individ-
ual," he says, though does not give the locality; of Wilson's snipe (" a
single individual " ), buff-breasted sandpiper ( " a single individual" )•> ring-
billed gull ("three young-of-the-year at Henley Harbor"), sooty shear-
water ( "few" ). Dr. Coues's record of the pine-creeping warbler in Lab-
rador, as appearing in the "Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sci-
ence, of Philadelphia," p. 220, in denied in the " Birds of the Northwest,"
in the following words, (p. 69): "The quotation 'Labrador' originated in
an error of mine some years since. The specimen was young of striata."

Labrador ought to give us further knowledge of Cepphus mandtii, which
Stejneger ("Proceedings of the U. S. Nat. Mus." vol. 7, p. 216) says to
" breed in Greenland," and which is not "a synonym of C. cohimba" but,
as he say, " a perfectly good species," and that the " National Museum
possesses adult birds in breeding plumage from St. George, Hudson's Bay,
collected by Mr. Drexler." Mr. Turner says of it : "Occurs in Hudson
Straits occasionally only, according to my own observation, plentiful on
the Eastern coast of Labrador." Also of the curious form of U. carbo.
Kumlein, in "The Natural History of Arctic America," p. 105, says: "I
have seen three entirely black specimens, of which I considered to be U.
carbo. One was obtained in Cumberland." Mr. Ridgeway describes a
new variety of jay [referred to above] in the " Proceedings of the U. S.
Nat. Mus." vol. 5, p. 15, as " Perisoreus Canadensis nicfricapillns" Lnbra-

Bird-Life in Labrador.

bor, April 2, 18HO; "Schneider;" presented by Dr. L. Stejneger. Mr.
Turner records this as " coastwise and interior especial!}- abundant. Resi-
dent and breeds at Fort Chimo."

I should like to know more of Briinnich's guillemot in Labrador ; also
of the so-called "blue gulls" of the inhabitants, who talk of the "fresh-
water blue gull " and of the " salt-water blue gull" of which I " never took
a specimen," according to the local hunters there, — could they have been
leucopierus and delawarensis 1 possibly. Another point, I believe that the
great black-backed gull and the herring gull lay, respectively, three and
four eggs almost if not quite invariably. In Mr. Edward A. Samuel's
" Ornithology and Oology of New England," Mr. William Cooper, of Que-
bec, is credited with : rough-legged hawk ("breeds in Labrador"), hawk
owl ( "breeds in the northern portions of Hudson Bay and Labrador" ),
white-winged crossbill ("breeds"), northern phalarope P. hyperboreus
( "common " ), and ring-billed gull L. delauwrensis ( " breeds " ). In an-
other place he affirms Audubon's statement relative to the Blackbnrnian
warbler, thus : " I saw numbers of this species in the woods of Labrador
on the seventeenth of June, but could not discover the nest."

From the above references it will be seen at a glance that it is highly
probable that a further careful research into the bird fauna of Labrador
will reveal man}- treasures and rarities hitherto unlooked for in so arctic a
climate. As a rule birds are found where Summer is. While, then, the
warmth of Summer o'erspreads, even for a short time, the otherwise frigid
climate of arctic North America, of Labrador, at least, birds swarm as in
more favored regions. You will see that I have bounded Labrador by the
bird fauna of the land north and west, and of the water east and south.
The interior of the peninsula remains yet to be explored. In these da}-s
it is as much as one's life is worth to give a bird a scientific (Latin) name,
and though I have given, generall}*, only the English names of the species
here they will hardly be misunderstood I think.

Bird-Life in Labrador.

The Robin 9

Gray-cheeked Thrush 11

Stone Chat 12

Ruby-crowned Kinglet 12

Hudsonian Chickadee 13

Shore Lark Horned Lark 15

Yellow-rum ped Warbler 17

Black-poll Warbler :.. 17

Maryland Yellow-throat 18

Golden-crowned Thrush Oven Bird 18

Water Thrush 18

American Pipit Titlark 19

Green Black-capped Flycatching Warbler 22

Pine Grosbeak 23

Red-poll Linnet 24

Snow Bunting 26

Lapland Longspur 27

Savanna Sparrow 28

Snow Bird 29

Tree Sparrow 30

White-throated Sparrow Peabody Bird 30

White-crowned Sparrow 32

Fox-colored Sparrow 33

Rusty Blackbird Rusty Grackle 34

Raven 35

Common Crow 37

Canada Jay (Whiskey Jack) 37

Night Hawk , 39

Belted Kingfisher 39

5

Bird- Life in- Labrador.

Hairy Woodpecker 3i)

Downy Woodpecker 41

Black-backed Three-toed Woodpecker 41

Golden-winged Woodpecker Flicker 41

Great Horned Owl 41

Short-Eared Owl 42

Snowy Owl 42

Marsh Hawk 44

Cooper's Hawk 45

Labrador G3~rfalcon 45

Pigeon Hawk 45

Spruce Partridge Canada Grouse 46

Willow Ptarmigan 48

Rock Ptarmigan 50

Black-bellied Plover (Quebec Curlew) 50

Golden Plover. 51

Semipalmated Plover Ring Neck 51

Turnstone 53

American Snipe 53

Red-breasted Snipe 53

Least Sandpiper 53

Pectoral Sandpiper Jack Snipe 54

Semipalmated Sandpiper 54

Red Phalarope , 5(5

White-rumped Sandpiper Bonaparte's Sandpiper 5(5

Ash-colored Sandpiper Robin Snipe Knot 5!)

Ruddy Plover Sanderling 60

Hudsonian Godwi t (50

Greater Yellow-legs Stone Snipe (51

Solitary Sandpiper (52

Spotted Sandpiper (52

Hudsonian Curlew Jack Curlew 62

Esquimaux Curlew Dough-bird 62

Bittern Stake Driver (54

Canada Goose (55

Brant Goose (56

Dusky Duck Black Duck 66

Pintail Duck 67

American Widgeon 68

English Teal 6S

Green-winged Teal (58

Summer Duck Wood Duck 68

Red-head Duck Pochard 69

Barrow's Golden-eye 69

Bume-hojul Butter-ball Dipper Duck 6!)

Jjir<l-fjifc irn Labrador.

Long-tailed Duck South Southerly Old Wife Old Squaw... 70

Harlequin Duek ... 71

Eider Duck 72

King Eider Duek 70

Pacific Eider 77

American Black Scoter 78

White-winged Coot Scoter Velvet Duck 78

Surf Duck Sea Coot 78

Merganser Goosander Fish Duck 79

Iled-breasted Merganser 79

Hooded Merganser 80

Common (ran net Solan Goose 80

"Common Cormorant Shag 80

Double-crested Cormorant 81

Pomarine Jaeger 81

Richardson's or Parasitic Jaeger 82

Buffon's Arctic or Long-tailed Jaeger 82

Glaucous Gull Burgomaster Ice Gull 82

Great Black-backed Gull 83

Common Herring Gull 85

Kittiwake Gull 87

Bonaparte's Gull 87

Arctic Tern 88

Common or Wilson's Tern 88

Fulmar Fulmar Petrel 88

Leach's Petrel 89

Greater Shearwater 89

Soot}* Shearwater 89

Loon Great Northern Diver r.. 89

Red-throated Diver 90

Black-throated Diver 90

American Red-necked Grebe 91

Razor-billed Auk Tinker Turre 91

Common Puffin Parrakeet 94

Sea Dove 96

Black Guillemot Pigeon 97

Common or Foolish Guillemot Murre 99

Thick-billed or Briinnich's Guillemot... . 100