THE OTTAWA NATURALIST 



VOL. XXVIII NOVEMBER, 1914. No. 8. 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY MUSEUM WORK 

 ON POINT PELEE, ONT.* 



By p. a. T.WERNER. 



In following out a scheme for illustrating the various faunal 

 areas of the Dominion in the Museum of the Geological Survey, 

 Ottawa, by large landscape groups showing the characteristic 

 plants, animals, etc., of each marked division, it was decided to 

 begin the work in southern Ontario, which "from its striking 

 characteristics and accessibility was obviously a natural starting- 

 point for the work. 



Point Pelee, Essex County, near the western end of Lake 

 Erie, was the chosen point of operation and on May l5th a. 

 Museum party, composed of Messrs. C. H. Young, C. L. Patch, 

 and the writer arrived on the Point. Delayed by unavoidable 

 circumstances our arrival was too late to catch the early 

 migrants but, as the season was cold and the migrations delayed, 

 this was not as serious as it might have been in a more normal 

 vear. 



A considerable amount of work has been done and results 

 publishedf relative to this region, by various ornithologists, 

 mostly since 1905, but no continuous series of observations 

 haA-e been carried on there hitherto in summer months. 



Owing to the fact that our attention had to be turned prin- 

 cipally to collecting, for our exhibition group, a great amount of 

 strictly scientific work was precluded, but general conditions 

 proved so interesting that the most salient features seem worthy 

 of record. 



*Published by permission of the Deputy Minister of Mines. ' 

 tSee P. A. Tavemer and B. H. Swales— Birds of Point Pelee, Bull. 

 Wilson Ornithological Club, 1907-08. Nos. 59-62, and various notes and 

 short papers by the above and W. E. Saunders, in the pages of the 

 Ottawa Naturalist. 



