19101 The Ottawa Naturalist 153 



Ottawa as its centre. It includes, roughly speaking, the Counties 

 of Carleton and Russell in Ontario, and the southern portion of 

 the County of Ottawa in Quebec, and lies between 45 and 46^ 

 north latitude. The northern portion of this district is covered 

 by what may be termed the first range of the Laurentian Hills, 

 one of which, known as King's Mountain, has an elevation of 

 1,125 feet above sea level, and rises about 900 feet above the 

 large alluvial plain lying between it and the Ottawa River. 

 These hills are covered with a great variety of deciduous and 

 evergreen trees, and among them are numerous mountain lakes, 

 varying in size from mere ponds to lakes of five miles and up- 

 wards in length {e.g., Meach Lake). Flowing from the north 

 through this range of hills the rapid river Gatineau empties, 

 opposite the cit}^ into the Ottawa, which flows from the west 

 across the centre of the district, widening above the city with 

 a southward sweep into a broad and beautiful sheet of water 

 known as Lake Des Chenes, and' again narrowing at the city 

 where, falling over a limestone ridge, it forms the well-known 

 Chaudiere Falls. Below these its course is straighter and 

 narrower, and about twenty miles down it receives from the 

 north the waters of another rapid stream, the Du Lievre. South 

 of the Ottawa is a somewhat undulating tract of country, 

 drained principally by the Rideau, which joins the Ottawa at 

 the city. It is rather a sluggish stream in its upper reaches, 

 through being dammed back at various points for canal purposes, 

 and thus affords several excellent resorts for marsh birds. Much 

 good farming land, with occasional hardwood ridges, is to be 

 found in this part of the district, as well as swamps overgrown 

 with tamarack, cedar, and other cone-bearing trees. The largest 

 of these swamps is a peat-bog in Gloucester Township, known as 

 the Mer Bleue, which covers several thousand acres of land, 

 carpeted to a great depth with sphagnum moss, and producing 

 immense quantities of berries of many kinds, notably cran- 

 berries and blueberries." 



Thus it will be seen that we have here all the conditions 

 conducive to making habitats for all kinds of birds. Only 

 LimicolcB, the shore-birds, find conditions here less and less 

 congenial, as the floods of the Ottawa in May and earh^ June 

 cover all the available sand banks with water, and in August 

 and the following months they are given no rest by the hordes 

 of boys and men who make a practice of going up and down the 

 river in boats armed with all kinds of shooting irons, blazing 

 away at every living thing. This is done all summer, especially 

 on Saturdays and Sundays, so that even breeding birds and 

 fledglings are wantonly slaughtered, so much so, that certain 

 localities that would otherwise teem with bird-life, as Kettle 



