104 FROM BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



during the period of the autumn migration, I 

 should have seen wonderful flights and fleets of 

 sea fowl. As it was, the species which I saw 

 and the individuals which I met were few, save 

 in the case of Wilson's tern, which was ubiqui- 

 tous, and the least sandpiper, which in numer- 

 ous flocks swarmed upon the sands. I saw also 

 solitary and semipalmated sandpipers, greater 

 yellow -legs, herring gidls, dusky ducks, old 

 squaws, and golden-eyes. Blue herons were 

 plentiful near Baddeck, as they had been on the 

 Annapolis Basin. They formed a striking part 

 of every evening picture, where sparkling water, 

 tinted sky, purple hills, and gathering shadows 

 were united under the magic words " Bras d'Or." 

 In Loch o' Law, as the sun sank over the Mar- 

 garee, a mother loon swam and dived with her 

 chick in the placid water ; but the bird which 

 impressed itself most strongly upon my memory, 

 during my trip, was the lonely shag, or cormo- 

 rant, which I saw on the outer end of a line of 

 rocks projecting into Ingonish Bay from the 

 side of Middle Head. Dark and slimy, melan- 

 choly and repulsive, its head and neck reminded 

 me of a snake or turtle more than of any gen- 

 uine feather-wearer. When at last it saw me, it 

 was to the bay that it turned for escape, and 

 upon tlie waters, almost out of sight, that it set- 

 tled down to rest among the waves. There is 



