26 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



[May 



countless numbers is unappreciable. They are 

 magnificent birds and their presence adds consider- 

 ably to the interest of all the coast whilst the presence 

 here of this great rookery makes a sight that should 

 prove a constant asset in attracting visitors to the 

 neighbourhood. The Gannets are looked upon by 

 most of the local fishermen with favour. To the 

 fish-wise ones their actions indicate when the squid 

 and herring, much sought for for bait, come and 

 where they are and about how deep they lie. In 

 foggy weather the cries of the birds act as a 

 natural fog horn warning mariners away from 

 the dangerous rocks of the rookeries and many a 

 shipwreck has been avoided by the hearing of their 

 timely warnings. Yet in spite of the uselessness 

 of the dead birds, their obvious beauty, and some 

 slight practical usefulness, I regret to say that they 

 are shamefully persecuted. I have seen a boat con- 

 taining eight to ten guns with unlimited ammunition, 

 repair to the ledges for a day's sport (?) The re- 

 sults were seen later when the rocky base was 

 littered with dead and wounded birds and their 

 sodden remains washed back and forth in the ad- 

 joining sea. At one point on the mainland beach some 

 five miles from the scene of the slaughter, within a 

 hundred yards a dozen or more birds were to be 

 seen where they had been stranded by the tide, but 

 the saddest sight of all, was up on one of the lower 

 ledges where pot-shots had been taken of the crowded 

 sitting birds. Here for some distance lay a trail of 

 dead birds still on the nests where they had been shot 

 with the young pinned beneath the cold bodies of 

 their parents. Other young stood disconsolately 

 about until a humane heel or blow of a gunstock put 

 an end to their hunger and cold. Below on rocks 

 just above the swirl of the sea where they had man- 

 aged to clamber were numerous wounded adults 

 patiently awaiting death that lingered in its coming. 



There is a movement under way by the Conserva- 

 tion Commission to reserve this wonderful spot as a 

 perpetual bird reserve under the control of 

 Dominion or Provincial authorities, but such is the 

 conservativeness, to call it by its mildest name, of 

 the local population that considerable objections 

 have had to be overcome and it is still doubtful 

 after three years of effort, whether the plan will 

 succeed or not. Some day the local population will 

 realize that these rookeries are a source of attraction 

 to strangers and too valuable a local asset to be 

 wantonly destroyed. Until some such light breaks 

 upon the community, and awakens public opinion 

 and a spirit of protection, the senseless destruction 

 will proceed. It is to be hoped either that the pro- 

 tective measures will be completed or this awaken- 

 ing will come before it is too late. 



NOTES. 



It is reported* that the fields over which the battle 

 of the Somme raged during the late summer and 

 autumn of 1916 were thickly carpeted with bloom- 

 ing plants less than a year later. July of 1917 saw 

 vast stretches of scarlet poppies, interspersed with 

 acres of chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla, L.) 

 and large patches of yellow charlock, glorifying 

 what had been but a dreary waste of mud and water 

 throughout the preceding winter. Half-hidden 

 within this luxuriant growth white crosses mark the 

 graves of the dead. Where shells left yawning 

 holes, water has gathered and formed ponds, which 

 are rendered more or less permanent by the nature 

 of the soil. In and around these flourish the annual 

 rush ( J uncus bufonius), the smartweed (Polygonum 

 persicaria), and numerous water grasses. Dragon 

 flies hover about the pools, which teem with water 

 beetles and various other forms of pond life. The 

 woods which once covered the uplands have been 

 destroyed almost entirely by the heavy shelling. 

 Only at Aveluy Wood a few badly broken trees 

 still live, and these rise from a dense growth of 

 rosebay willow-herb ( Epilobium angusiifolium). 

 The extraordinary method of cultivation of the soil 

 apparently has increased its productive power. The 

 underlying chalk formation has been broken up, 

 mixing with the subsoil and the old surface soil, thus 

 forming a new and very fertile combination, from 

 which the various seeds, many of them perhaps long 

 buried deep in the ground, have sprung with great 

 vigor. Patches of oats and barley and occasionally 

 of wheat are to be seen. These may have been 

 sown by the Germans, or they may have lain dor- 

 mant in the ground since before the war when this 

 land was all under cultivation. Along the road- 

 sides are traces of the old permanent flora; while 

 here and there remains of currant and other bushes 

 show where a cottage stood with its garden. r/ie 

 American Museum Journal, May, 1918. 



A Chech List of North American Amphibians 

 and Reptiles, by Leonard Stejneger and Thomas 

 Barbour, issued by the Harvard University Press, 

 is a work for which there existed an urgent need. 

 The list has been prepared generally upon the lines 

 of the American Ornithologists Union Check List 

 of Birds. As Dr. Stejneger and Dr. Barbour are 

 the foremost herpetologists in North America, 

 students of the subject will have the greatest con- 

 fidence in the book. 



*Capt. A. W. Hill, Assistant Director Royal 

 Botanic Gardens, Kew. England, in the Kew Bulle- 

 tin of Miscellaneous Information, No.s. 9 and 10, 

 1917. 



