^"I'^/'^n Trotter, Scune Nova Sco/ia Birds. C Z^ 



1904 J 



slender it is not characteristically sharp pointed. The upper 

 mandible is much more curved than normally, probably from lack 

 of the support of the lower mandible, and in place of the normal 

 sharp, chisel-shaped point, the tip much more resembles that of 

 a snipe's bill. 



Where the edges of the mandibles meet at the crossing they are 

 worn to a slight notch. 



It would be interesting to know whether this bird subsisted 

 entirely on fruit and seeds, which normally form a large percent- 

 age of the food of the species, or whether it was fed by the mate, 

 with insects. Obviously this bill was not adapted to obtaining 

 insects for itself in the usual manner. Unfortunately the bird's 

 stomach when procured was empty. The stomach of the female 

 contained the remains of a dragonfly. 



SOME NOVA SCOTIA BIRDS. 



BY SPENCER TROTTER. 



The peninsula of Nova Scotia has a ragged coast-line ; the land 

 is deeply invaded by the sea through many liord-like inlets. Four 

 rocky headlands, scarred and worn, alternate with stretches of 

 sand and shingle ; bowlder-strewn ledges fringe the shores and 

 submarine banks reach far seaward. These sands seem to have 

 impressed the early French explorers who gave the name " Sable " 

 to the southern cape of the peninsula, as well as to a river and 

 also to a group of low islands which lie at some distance off the 

 eastern coast. The edge of the great x\tlantic fog bank hovers 

 over these shores, and creeping in with the southerly wind wraps 

 the land in its gloomy mists, often for days at a time. 



Back of this coast the voyager along the southern shores sees a 

 land of pointed trees — spruce and balsam fir — rising into a low 

 ridge that is succeeded inland by other similar ridges ; a vast, 

 unbroken stretch of evergreen wilderness from shore to shore 



