THE AUK: 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



Vol. xxii. July, 1905. No. 3. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL RESULTS OF THE CANADIAN 



'NEPTUNE' EXPEDITION TO HUDSON BAY AND 



NORTHWARD. 1903-1904. 



BY REV. C. W. G. EIFRIG. 



In the summer of 1903 an expedition was sent out by the Can- 

 adian Government to Hudson Bay and northward for the purpose 

 of taking formal possession of certain lands and islands, which 

 for many years had been understood by everyone to belong to 

 Great Britain or Canada, but which in some cases had never been 

 formally claimed as such. The purpose of the expedition was 

 also to establish custom and police relations with some of the 

 whaling stations in the far north, make surveys, etc. The good 

 sealing steamer ' Neptune,' chartered by the government, carried, 

 beside its complement of men and officers, Mr. A. P. Low, in 

 charge of the expedition, several members of the Geological Sur- 

 vey of Canada, Mr. A. Halkett, the naturalist, and an officer and 

 five men of the Northwestern Mounted Police. They left Halifax 

 harbor August 23, 1903, and entered it again October 11,1904, 

 being thus absent one year and fifty-one days. As such expe- 

 ditions are not made very frequently and not many ornithologists 

 reach the places visited by this one, it may not be amiss to make 

 the ornithological results obtained more widely known than can 

 be done by the usual government report. The writer, therefore, 

 with the kind permission and aid of Messrs. A. P. Low and A. 

 Halkett, carefully went over the material brought back and took 

 copious notes of it and from the journals of these gentlemen. 



