438 Fleming, Birds of Toronto, Ontario. 



Auk 

 Oct. 



for many years was very nearly treeless ; it is deeply cut into from 

 the bay side by many marshy lagoons and channels. Of late years 

 a good deal of filling in has been done ; many houses have been 

 built along the lake front, and the planting of willows and other 

 soft-wooded trees, particularly at Island Park, has given shelter 

 and increased the food supply, inducing many birds to stop here 

 on migrations that formerly passed over the city; warblers such 

 as the Cape May, the Tennessee, and the Connecticut, that were 

 regarded as accidental, have become regular migrants. 



Toronto Bay itself has suffered from the sewerage poured into it 

 and several species of aquatic plants that afforded food for wild 

 fowl have been killed out, but some ducks, such as the Long-tailed 

 Duck or Cowheen, have found the conditions not unfavorable, 

 and in winter whenever the ice allows, resort to the sewers in con- 

 siderable numbers. These sewers now represent some six or seven 

 small streams that formerly emptied into the bay from the north. 



From the Western Channel the city runs along the open lake for 

 three miles to the western city limits, following the inward sweep of 

 the lake, which forms what is known as Humber Bay, the Humber 

 River flowing into its western end about three quarters of a mile 

 further on. Westward along the lake, Mimico Creek, the Etobi- 

 coke River, and, west again, the Credit River enters the lake, at 

 a point thirteen miles from the center of the city. 



Returning again to the city, the land rises gradually from the 

 water front for some two and a half miles, and at North Toronto is 

 160 feet above the lake. From here an ancient lake margin rises 

 abruptly some 70 feet to a plateau which sweeps across the back of 

 the city and is broken only by the valley of the Don on the east, and 

 the Humber on the west, and a few small ravines; a good deal of 

 wood remains along this rise. This ancient water margin is one of 

 a number (said to be thirteen) that exist between here and Lake 

 Simcoe, some 60 miles further north; the highest point, 26 miles 

 north of the city, near King, is 7S0 feet above Lake Ontario; it 

 then declines till at Allendale on Lake Simcoe it is only 493 feet. 



The shores of Lake Ontario about Toronto are low except on 

 the east, at Scarboro (nine miles from the center of the city), where 

 the land rises to 324 feet above the lake, and forms precipitous cliffs 

 along the shore for some distance. Highland Creek and the Rouge 

 River flow into the lake east of this point. 



