28 The Ottawa Naturalist. [April 



courtship flight was very interesting. The note they used resem- 

 bled somewhat, to my ear, that of the spotted sandpiper, but was 

 repeated far oftener than is the case with that bird. Sometimes 

 both birds would be in the air at once, but whether the female 

 gave the note as well as the male, I could not definitely ascertain 

 without shooting the birds, which I was very loath to do. The 

 note would be given continuously tor perhaps three or four 

 minutes, during which time the bird flies slowly, with steady 

 flapping of the wings, mounting in the air gradually until, when 

 watching them in the evening, one loses sight of them in the 

 gloom. 



THE DUCKS. 



Two ducks, the red-breasted merganser and the black duck, 

 complete the enumeration of the ten breeding birds of Sable 

 Island. Both these species were usually seen in pairs, but on one 

 or two occasions five or six of the black ducks were seen together. 

 The pairs that were seen of this species were doubtless birds 

 to whose nest an accident had happened, as it was too late for 

 the regular laying period, and Mrs. Boutilier had at the house a 

 little duckling, which had been hatched from a nest found two or 

 three weeks before ; and from a setting of last year she has two 

 handsome wild black ducks that will come at call and feed from 

 her hand. 



The merganser was less common than the black ducks, and 

 while I saw two birds on three different occasions, I judged them 

 to be but one pair which had not yet begun to nest. Both these 

 species are now much rarer than formerly, Mr. James Boutilier 

 putting an estimate of their numbers at about three dozen pairs 

 of the two species combined, on the whole island. This decrease 

 is, of course, due entirely to the ravages of the foxes, and not. as 

 frequently happens, through the persecution of man, as it is 

 certain that few other ducks are favored with such complete pro- 

 tection as those receive that live on Sable Island. Not only is 

 spring shooting prohibited, and the birds left to breed un- 

 molested, but even in the fall, when the young are fully fledged 

 and fit to be eaten, none of them are shot. The inhabitants con- 

 trol their appetite for duck until the northern birds are travelling 

 south, and the ducks that really belong to Sable Island are left to 



