262 Bain on Winter Birds of Prince Edward Island. [ July 



there would be silence, and a small dark object would dart past 

 through the dusk down amid the shrubbery. Then, at silent in- 

 tervals, a single strange and rather startling note — a loud, sharp 

 and somewhat nasal speat or spneat — which sounded as if de- 

 livered with a spiteful directness at some offensive object. 



I had no means of estimating the height of the bird's ascent, 

 but in the evening dusk it went up almost out of sight. 



This performance I have heard at midnight on the bird's 

 arrival in spring. It is also said to take place in the early morn- 

 ing. Is it ever indulged in the autumn? 



WINTER BIRDS OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 



BY FRANCIS BAIN. 



Prince Edward Island, situated in the southern basin of the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence, possesses in some respects a climate 

 peculiarly its own. Sheltered from the chilling breath of the 

 Labrador Current by the elevated primary ridges of Nova Scotia 

 and Cape Breton, it enjoys a summer season with a more elevated 

 temperature, a purer atmosphere, a clearer sky, and more abound- 

 ing sunshine on its rich, verdure-clad swells, than are to be found 

 on the immediate Atlantic seaboard. 



In winter, on the contrary, the shallow waters of the Gulf are 

 soon covered with ice, sometimes extending unbroken as far as 

 the Magdalens, and the temperature of the season is uniformly 

 severe. Snow lies deep on the ground, and the rivers and bays 

 for four months are firmly locked in ice. The atmosphere, 

 however, is pure and bracing, and free from the damp chilling 

 mists of the ocean seaboard. 



These conditions have an influence on our winter avifauna. 

 Water birds which frequent bays and mouths of rivers are 

 completely driven away. Only a few deep-sea fowl stay to glean 

 a hardy living where the blue waves break among the parting 

 floes. The depth of snow is unfavorable to members of the Finch 

 tribe which, like the Tree Sparrow, seek their living from seeds 

 on the ground. But the splendid deciduous forests which flourish 



