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LIIRARY 



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THE OTTAWA NATURALIST 





VOL. XXXII. 



FEBRUARY, 1919 



No. 8, 



THE BIRDS OF SHOAL LAKE, MANITOBA.^- 



By p. a. Taverner. 



Shoal Lake, Manitoba, lies some thirty-five miles 

 a little east of north from the city of Winnipeg 

 and approximately midway between the lower lobes 

 of the two great lakes, Winnipeg ard Manitoba. 

 Though brought to the attention of ornithologists at 

 an early date and later repeatedly visited by col- 

 lectors, very little information has found its way 

 Into print regarding the details of its bird life. 



Donald Gunn visited the lake in 1867, and his 

 account' is extensively quoted by Ernest E. T. Seton 

 (Ernest E. Thompson or Ernest Seton Thompson) 

 in his Birds of Western Manitoba.- The same notes 

 with additions appear in The Birds of Manitoba' 

 by the same author and briefly summarized again 

 in the bird part of his Fauna of Manitoba^ in which 

 the nomenclature is brought up to date. 



In 1891, Fred Dippie was in the adjoining local- 

 ity of Raeburn. In 1893 and the following year 

 Edward Arnold' and Walter Raine visited the lake 

 i'self. The latter casually mentions Shoal Lake in 

 his Birds Nesting in Canrda'' but gives no details, 

 and his only published account appears in th 

 Oologisi.' Frank Chapman and E. T. Seton were 

 en the lake in July, 1901. The former has a popu- 

 lar generalized account of his trip in his Camps and 

 Cruises of an Ornithologist,^ and I am indebted 

 to Mr. Seton for a copy of his original field notes 

 v/hich I have quoted freely in the following. By 

 him I am informed that Mr. Miller Christy, of 



Published by permis.sion of the Director of the 

 Geological Survey, Ottawa, Ont. 



iNotes on an Egging Expedition to Shoal Lake, 

 west of Lake Winnipeg. Manitoba. Twenty-second 

 Annual Report, Smithsonian Institution, for 1867. 

 pp. 427-432. bv Donald Gunn. 



2Birds of Western ManitoVm. by Ernest E. T. 

 Seton, Auk III, 1886, pp. 14.3-1.56 and 320-329. 



.^The Birds of Manitoba, by Ernest E. Thompson, 

 Proc. U.S. Nat'nl. Museum. XIII, 1891, pp. 4.57-653. 



4Fauna of Manitoba, by Ernest Thompson Seton, 

 as it appeared in British Association Handbook, 

 Winnipeg, 1909 (repaged?) pp. 3-47, part on birds, 

 pp. 11-47. 



5A Few Notes from Shoal Lake. Manitoba, Oolo- 

 gist, XII, 1895. pp. 22-24. by Edward Arnold. 



"Birds Nesting in Northwest Canada, by Walter 

 Raine, 1892. 



7A Rough Time Collecting at Shoal Lake. :\lani- 

 toba, Oologist, XII, 1895, pp. 3-6, one plate, by 

 Walter Raine. 



sCamps and Cruises of An Ornithologist, by Frank 

 Chapman, Appleton Co., New York, 1908. 



Broomfield, Essex, England, visited the vicinity in 

 May, 1887, and a collection of birds he made there 

 is now in Seton's museum. June 27 to 29, 1912, 

 Mr. Herbert K. Job and his son visited the south 

 and west end of the lake looking for headquarters 

 at which to obtain water bird's eggs for propagating 

 purposes, but found the locality unsuited to their 

 work. Mr. Job has kindly furnished me with a 

 copy of his notes. I have heard of several other 

 observers having collected about the lake at various 

 times, but reports from them are not available ai 

 the present writing. From the context mcst of these 

 trips have been made to the southern extremity of 

 the lake, or in the case of Gunn, 1857, along the 

 west side as far north as the Narrows. 



Prompted by these accounts and desiring a 

 representative collection of Manitcban material, the 

 Biological Division of the Geological Survey, 

 Canada, made an expedition to Shoal Lake the 

 spring of 1917. The parly consisted of Mr. C. H. 

 Young and the writer. We arrived at the C.N.R. 

 station at Erinview, some four miles from the east 

 side and about opposite the middle of the lower 

 section of the lake, on May 16. Here we were 

 fortunate in meeting Mr. Frank Ward, who with his 

 father and brother, lives on the lake shore. He 

 transported us and cur bapgage to his farmstead and 

 allowed us camping privileges in the immediate 

 vicinity. The Ward brothers proved to be un- 

 usually well informed sportsmen naturalists and we 

 are mdebted to them for many interesting notes and 

 much valuable assistance during the course of our 

 work. I heartily recommend them to all visiting 

 naturalists. 



On the map. Shoal Lake is indicated as being 

 about thirty miles long north and south and ten 

 miles in extreme width at the southern end. It is 

 very irregularly shaped, with a constriction called 

 the Narrows somewhat below the middle, forming 

 practically two lakes divided by wide marshes 

 through which winds a narrow creek-like channel. 

 Both Chapman and Gunn describe the shores as 

 composed of broad marshes with tall reeds in which 



