80 Bird-Life in Labrador. 



ily and quickly, though they are best and most easily shot 

 while on the wing. The hunter will readily tell a flock of 

 " shell birds" from those of any other species at an immense 

 distance. 



HOODED MERGANSER 



McrguH eucullatus. — (L.) 



Rare, but specimens are occasionally secured in localities 

 along the coast. 



COMMON GANNET SOLAN GOOSE 



Su/a ha.s.sana. — {L.) 



Common in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on the " bird 

 rocks," where they breed in immense numbers. Occasionally 

 a stray specimen is seen on the Labrador coast, where we en- 

 countered it a number of titiies; but it is a rare bird there. 



COMMON CORMORANT SHAG 



Pha/acroeorax earho. — (L.) Leath. 



The Shag Rocks, off the St. Mary Islands, arc the great 

 abiding place of this and the succeeding s])ecies on the coast of 

 Labrador. Both are found here in equal abundance to all 

 appearances, and both are called equally the '* shag " My notes 

 on these two species are as follows: Tuesday, May 24 : At 

 eight o'clock we were just off the St. Mary Lslands, having 

 gone about eighty miles in twelve hours, and, counting the 

 curvature of the coast, a full hundred and sixty in the last 

 twenty-four; and yet on we go! We pass Shag Rocks, a long 

 row of bare rocks, without vegetation of any kind, where 

 the cormorants or shags breed in large numbers upon the 

 ledges of bare rock ; they use their own guano deposits for a 

 nest. There are two species of cormorants here ; the common 

 cormorant (car/to), and the double-crested cormorant {(lilophus) ; 



