1917] The Ottawa Naturalist 29 



material gives a very pleasing and decorative effect. The birchbark 

 is kept moist, or used while fresh and is cut so as to form flat trays, 

 oblong and round box-likeJ articles; while some are made like 

 buckets. A withe of some shrub, such as the alder or willow, is bound 

 around the top to strengthen the edge. The birchbark is most easily 

 detached in the spring. The bark of the common elm ( Ultnus 

 americana) is used by the Iroquois for basket or tray making. This 

 is a very fine and beautiful material and is also taken off the tree in 

 the spring. The rough corrugations on the outside are planed or pared 

 down somewhat to render the surface more even, this surface forming 

 the outside of the receptacle. The bark is kept pliable by soaking, and 

 is usually sewn with basswood bast, although spruce root could no 

 doubt be used. 



A very beautiful coiled basketry is made by the Salish and other 

 western tribes from spruce root. The strands used for the sewing or 

 binding are made as just described, while the coils around which these 

 finer strips are sewn are made from the rougher shreds of the root. The 

 method in general may be said to resemble that employed in raffia 

 work, but the product is much more substantial and beautiful. A very 

 good collection of spruce root basketry from the interior Salish and 

 other tribes may be seen at the Victoria Memorial Museum. 



THE AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER IN 

 EASTERN ONTARIO. 



By E. Beaupre, Kingston, Ont. 



After an absence of almost fifteen years, the Golden Plover has 

 apparently resumed its migratory visits to eastern Ontario. During 

 the long period of their absence one was forced to return from a visit 

 to their former haunts with a feeling that an important and delightful 

 feature of the out-door world was missing; the old pasture fields and 

 gravel-covered shores formerly enlivened by the cheerful and friendly 

 whistle of large flocks of plover were deserted, and the existence of 

 these intensely interesting birds threatened to become a memory. The 

 only opportunity to observe them locally was afforded during their 

 migration southward in the months of August and September. 



For some years previous to 1901, their numbers were gradually 

 diminishing, but from September 1901 to August 1915, so far as the 

 writer could possibly learn, this plover was not recorded as a fall 

 migrant in eastern Ontario. During that long period, the only evi- 

 dence of the bird's existence was afforded by the night flights of flocks 

 over the writer's home, and recorded at different times. In a valuable 

 bulletin written by the late Prof. W. W. Cooke of the Biological 



