^°'i^lO^^^] TowNSEND AND Bent, Birds of Labrador. 5 



and Razor-billed Auks are rapidly diminishing their breeding 

 numbers, while ISIurres and Gannets, as far as we could discover, 

 no longer breed there. At Bald Island we found about 150 pairs 

 of Puffins breeding, and a very few pairs probably still breed at 

 the Peroqueet Islands. As far as we could discover, probably less 

 than two dozen pairs of the formerly abundant Razor-billed Auk 

 breed on this coast west of Natashquan. 



The cause for this diminution is not far to seek: — Indians and 

 fishermen visit the islands with pails and collect the eggs for food. 

 They also shoot the breeding birds. Eiders that conceal their nests 

 under the spruce bushes are able to resist longer this war of extermi- 

 nation, but near INIingan and Seven Islands, where there are Indian 

 villages occupied by these people during June and July, the Eiders 

 are diminished very greatly in numbers. We found Indians 

 cruising and camping at various places along the coast and witnessed 

 their depredations on the birds. Birds that lay their eggs in col- 

 onies are of course more easily exterminated by these practices. 

 According to the latest government census, published in 1908, the 

 Montaignais Indians distributed along this coast number 694 in 

 all, distributed as follows: 76 at Natashquan, 241 at Mingan, and 

 377 at Seven Islands. They come out of the interior with their 

 furs the last of May and in June, and return to the interior about 

 the middle of August. Their stay on the coast embraces the whole 

 breeding period of the water birds. 



At Mingan we were particularly impressed with the scarcity of 

 passerine birds, which may perhaps be due to the presence there 

 of Indian boys and their numerous small mongrel dogs that range 

 the country, and also to their cats. We found that nearly all the 

 Indians along this coast travelled about with cats as wigwam pets, — 

 a fashion they are said to have adopted only of late years. Between 

 them all the birds have but a poor showing. 



The absence of Ravens and Rusty Grackles and Pine Siskins, 

 and the rarity of shore-birds generally, of Labrador Jays, Redpolls, 

 Yellow-rumped Warblers, Hudsonian Chickadees, and Golden- 

 crowned Kinglets appeared to us worthy of note. 



Our short stay of four weeks in Labrador was so timed that we 

 arrived before the leaf buds had opened, and before all the snow 

 and the winter birds had gone, and we left as summer was well 



