414 AUDUBON 



of wilderness and loneliness — the boats moving to and 

 fro, going after fish, and returning loaded to the gun- 

 wales, others with seines, others with capelings for bait. 

 A hundred or more were anchored out about a mile from 

 us, hauling the poor codfish by thousands; hundreds of 

 men engaged at cleaning and salting, their low jokes and 

 songs resembling those of the Billingsgate gentry. On 

 entering the port I observed a large flock of small Gulls, 

 which species I could not ascertain, also Lcstris of two 

 species, one small and one large. As soon as breakfast 

 was over, the young men went ashore to visit Mr. Jones, 

 the owner of the Seal-fishing establishment here. He re- 

 ceived them well — a rough, brown Nova Scotia man, the 

 lord of this portion of Labrador — and he gave John and 

 the others a good deal of information. Four or five spe- 

 cies of Grouse, the Velvet Duck, the Alias glacialis,^ and 

 Fuligula histrionicaP' the Wild Goose, and others breed in 

 the swampy deserts at the head waters of the rivers, and 

 around the edges of the lakes and ponds which everywhere 

 abound. He also knew of my coming. John and Cool- 

 idge joined parties and brought me eight Red-polls, Friti- 

 gilla linaria, old and young, which I will draw to-morrow. 

 Query, is it the same which is found in Europe .-• Their 

 note resembles that of the Siskin; their flight that of the 

 Siskin and Linnet combined. The young were as large as 

 the old, and could fly a mile at a stretch; they resort to 

 low bushes along the edges of ponds and brooks; the hunt- 

 ers saw more than they shot. They brought also Savannah 

 Finches, and White-crowned Sparrows. They saw a fine 

 female Tetrao canadensis, not quite so gray as the last ; 

 the young flew well and alighted on trees and bushes, and 

 John would not allow any of them to be shot, they were so 

 trusting. They saw a Willow Grouse, which at sight of 

 them, though at some distance, flew off and flew far; on 



1 Harelda hiemalis, the Old Squaw or Long- Tailed Duck. — E. C. 



2 Histrionicus histriouicus, the Harlequin Duck. -^E. C. 



