218 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 89 



CORRESPONDENCE 



A letter wiitten to Dr. T. C. Stephens by our fellow member. 

 Dr. P. A. Taverrier, of the Victoria Memorial Museum, Ottawa, Can- 

 ada, is of such general interest that with the permission of both 

 gentlemen it is reproduced here. Dr. Taveruer says : 



I have just returned from a field trip to the South Shore of 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence, for the Zoological Division of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of Canada. We spent a month from May 21st on 

 Miscou Island, N. B., and then went to Perce, across the Bay of 

 Chaleurs ; where we spent the remainder of the season to August 

 23d, with side trips to Gaspe and a flying visit to the Magdalen 

 Islands. 



Most of the work after Miscou was put on sea birds and Bona- 

 venture Island the famous Gannet breeding place, three miles from 

 Perce was a mine of interesting experiences and at Gaspe we made 

 an economic study of the Cormorant — Phalerocorax auritus — in re- 

 lation to the salmon fisheries and hope that incidentally we have 

 gone far to stop the killing of these birds. 



We obtained a fine series of skins of nearly all the sea species 

 inhabiting these shores, showing the various summer plumages of 

 the various ages. 



We are also able to correct the generally reported identification 

 that gives P. carho as the breeding Cormorant of this section. They 

 are in fact all auritus, and one of the interesting problems will be 

 in future to map out the summer distribution of these two species 

 on the St. Lawrence coasts. 



Besides this expedition we have two others in the field yet. Dr. 

 R. M. Anderson is collecting and second in command with the Ca- 

 nadian Arctic Expedition under Stephanson. Our latest reports 

 from him were written last December, but at the time of his writ- 

 ing he was in good health and his collecting progressing most fa- 

 vorably and with the promises of most satisfactory results. For- 

 tunately he was not with the ill-fated " Karlark," that was crushed 

 in the ice and whose crew we are still anxiously waiting to hear 

 of through the U. S. Revenue Ship Bear. 



Mr. Francis Harper of Cornell, constitutes the Zoological section 

 of another expedition crossing from Lake Athabasca to Great Slave 

 Lake. His last report was dated Athabasca Lake, June 8th, when 

 about to make the final traverse. His results so far seemed most 

 satisfactory and doubtless his final report on return will continue 

 the promise of the earlier work. 



Yours sincerely. 



P. A. Tavekner. 



