NORTHWARD WITH THE SHORE-BIRDS 235 
freezing cold. A blustering northwest wind lashed the bays 
into white-caps and made the lobster-boat skim along the 
wide lagoon like a shearwater. We first landed on the side 
opposite the plover resort, where was a series of ponds simi¬ 
lar to those of East Point, where we hoped to find a variety 
of shore-birds. Numbers of Least Sandpipers were feeding, 
singly or in pairs, along the margins of the lakelets, with 
a few of the Ring-necks. It was so cold that I had fairly to 
run to get warm, after the cold sail in the boat, as I beat 
about in hope of flushing a sandpiper, snipe, or wild duck 
from its nest. One of the comjDany came racing and puffing 
after me, saying he was having a hard time to catch up. All 
we found was the nest of a Horned Grebe out in some reeds in 
quite deep water. It seemed natural on such a cold day to 
see a flock of Common Crossbills feeding among the spruces. 
We ate dinner behind some sand-dunes above the beach, 
and then scjuared away for the home of the plovers, some 
two miles over the sparkling water. As we approached, we 
were sorrv to see several men and boys with pails walking 
about over the stretch of sand and grass, followed by an 
angrv companv of hovering terns. They proved to be French 
fishermen, gathering eggs for food. The Ring-necked Plovers 
were here, as before, running anxiously about along the 
sandv margin, and I feared that we were too late. When the 
men showed us what they had found, I was glad to see that, 
besides the terns’ eggs, they had taken but one set of four 
eggs of the Piping Plover. 
It occurred to me that these fellows might aid us in our 
search. Thev could not speak a word of English, and I 
imagine that their French dialect was none of the purest. 
However, we unlimbered our college French as best we 
could. Each sally brought forth a roar of laughter from the 
rest of the party, as the air became redolent with phrases 
