Notes from Labrador 



By A. C. BENT 



HAVING spent nearly the whole of July and August, 191 2, on the north- 

 east coast of Labrador, it seems worth while to present the following 

 brief notes as to the status of certain birds on that coast at the 

 present time. 



I left Bay of Islands, Newfoundland, on the evening of July 3, on the 

 steamer Solway, touched at various points on the west coast of Newfoundland 

 and the east coast of Labrador, and arrived at Battle Harbor on July 6, where 

 I met Mr. Donald B. MacMillan, with our assistant, Mr. J. C. Small, for a 

 cruise along the coast in a lit :le 25-foot power-boat, in which they had cruised 

 all the way from Boston, Two days later I sailed in the steamer Sagona for 

 Hopedale, leaving the othen , to come along in the power-boat, which was too 

 small to carry my baggage. From Hopedale we cruised north in the power- 

 boat as far as Cape Mugford. On the return trip I left Okak, on August g, 

 on the steamer Stella Maris, snent a week at Hopedale, waiting for the steamer, 

 Sagona, and finally reached Battle Harbor on August 25. 



We were much delayed and inconvenienced during the early part of the 

 summer by drift ice. The Straits of Belle Isle were blocked with ice until the 

 last week in June, and it was nearly the middle of July before the ice moved 

 off the coast north of Battle Harbor. From that time on we were delayed, 

 and prevented from visiting some of the outer islands, by frequent storms and 

 almost continuous foggy weather; for fifteen consecutive days we had con- 

 stant fog and rain with northeast winds. 



I have heard that the sea birds on the Labrador coast were disappearing, 

 but was not prepared to find them so scarce as they proved to be. They seem 

 to have decreased very decidedly during the past few years, and, unless some- 

 thing can be done to protect them, many species will soon have disappeared 

 entirely. Their nests are robbed persistently all through the summer by the 

 resident white people, by the Eskimos, and by the large number of New- 

 foundland fishermen that visit the coast in the summer. The birds are also 

 shot freely for food at all seasons of the year. On such a bleak and barren 

 coast, where poultry cannot exist and where fresh meat or food of any kind is 

 scarce, it is difficult to make these people refrain from indulging in what 

 delicacies of this sort are available; but they might be educated up to the con- 

 servation of their resources for a future food supply. This could be brought 

 about by establishing reservations or breeding sanctuaries under the pro- 

 tection of trustworthy wardens. Both the Newfoundland visitors and the 

 resident population are, as a rule, law-abiding people, and the government 

 officials who are constantly traveling up and down the coast on the mail 

 steamers could easily enforce the laws. 



Without attempting to give a complete list of all the species noted on this 



(II) 



