238 The Ottawa Naturalist. [March 



kelp and seaweed the piping plover. A week or two later quite 

 a number of these birds put in an appearance, and as T later 

 observed, stayed to rear their young. A few days later the 

 seniipalmated plover and least sandpipers came along from the 

 south , some of which also remained to breed. 



The capture of two birds very rare to the province was 

 made during this trip. On April 23rd a little blue heron was 

 flushed and shot from a salt marsh behind the sand beaches. 

 On the 25th a least bittern was found on the beach, its feet 

 entangled in a mess of eel grass and sea-weed. He was quite 

 alive however. Heavy southerly gales and much fog had pre- 

 vailed for some time previous and no doubt these birds had thus 

 strayed and drifted from their more southern haunts. 



I left this locality for the interior on May 6th, but returned 

 again on the 4th of June en route to Seal and Mtid islands, which 

 lie some 20 miles off the coast. Being detained here for two days 

 on account of storms. I again went over the ground of my 

 previous observations. Now of course the sea birds had gone, 

 but about the beaches and sand dunes were many black-breasted, 

 piping and semi-palmated plover, and spotted and least sand- 

 pipers. The black-breasts were merely lingering here before 

 moving to their more northern breeding grounds. All the 

 others, however, gave evidence to the fact that they were 

 nesting. Several nests with eggs of the spotted sand-piper were 

 discovered, and the downy-young some few hours old of the 

 least sand-piper were found on the border of a, salt marsh near 

 where they were no doubt hatched. I was not previously 

 aware that these latter bred so far south. Piping and semi- 

 palmated plover w^ere also nesting about the pebbly wastes 

 above the sand beach, as they plainly showed by their excited 

 circlings abovit my head, but diligent search failed to locate 

 either eggs or young. 



On June 8th, the weather having cleared, sail was set for 

 Mud Island 20 miles out to sea. Here were found many 

 Leach's petrels, terns, gulls, guillemots and a few eiders, while 

 of the small land birds the Bicknell's thrush and black-poll 

 warblers were the most interesting. Petrels were nesting all 

 over the island, their burrows and musky odor being much in 

 evidence. At the end of each burrow two birds were almost 

 invariably found, but no eggs as yet. 



A pair of eiders had built a nest at the base of a large spruce 

 on the high bank overlooking the beach, and six eggs had been 

 laid, but when examined each egg showed a ragged puncture 

 in its side, through which the contents had been largely 

 removed this without doubt the work of the crows, which here 



