I A Dwight on the Summer Birds of Cape Breton Island. [January 



from the water's edge to a height of several hundred feet, some- 

 times reaching an altitude of six or seven hundred, but nowhere 

 deserving the name of mountains. There is a great similarity 

 in the shores as one sails along them. Green fields largely re- 

 place the forest that has retreated from the attacks of the farmer, 

 in some places to the very tops of the highest hills, and dotted 

 about upon the hillsides one sees little houses and barns. To 

 the eastward the hills become higher and wilder, and white 

 cliffs of plaster gleam in the sunlight between the green forest 

 above and the blue water below, adding much to the picturesque- 

 ness of scenery that is unmarred by tracts of standing dead 

 timber and the look of desolation so common in the northern 

 woods. With the northern part of the island, which is moun- 

 tainous, rugged, and wild, and with the coast and its sea birds, 

 I had nothing to do. 



Occasionally I met with a few shore birds, but the gravelly 

 beaches of the Bras d'Or do not attract them. The Arctic Tern 

 was a constant feature in the landscape, and here and there 

 specked with white the blue expanse of water. It breeds un- 

 molested on some of the small islands and jutting points about 

 the lakes, and was one of the most conspicuous species I met 

 with. The Kingfisher and the Spotted Sandpiper were the 

 only other species daily seen along the shore. Sometimes I used 

 to see Herring Gulls, one day I saw a Petrel, and several times 

 I saw a few Ducks, mostly 'flappers,' but none of these were 

 identified with certainty. Neither were two sets of Ducks' eggs, 

 found one day upon a small island, although the nests and eggs 

 corresponded in every way to a genuine set of the Red-breasted 

 Merganser I once found similarly situated. 



Near the village of Baddeck, hay-fields, in which the crop 

 was being gathered at the time of my visit, extend along the 

 shore. Back of them is a partly cleared divide covered with 

 spruce and fir, and a sprinkling of maple, lurch, and larch, none 

 of the timber large, and many of the clearings, especially if 

 wet, grown up with alders. This divide slopes down into the 

 valley of the Baddeck River, where hay-fields are again the most 

 prominent feature. North of this the mountains begin in a low 

 range some seven miles from Baddeck, but I got no farther in 

 my explorations than the heavy timber extending to the foot of 

 these, and therefore, no doubt, several forest-loving species are 

 lacking in my list. 



