Dwight, Summer Birds of Prince Ed-ward Island. [ j a " _ 



birds whose acquaintance I had already made in other parts of 

 Canada, I nevertheless devoted a couple of weeks last summer 

 to exploring the island, and am now able to say what species are 

 characteristic summer residents; and a few words about them 

 may not come amiss to those of us who may be familiar with 

 them only during the migration seasons. 



The length of my stay was from June 23 to July 9, and by 

 means of the narrow-gauge railroad, supplemented by horse 

 power, I visited both extremities of the island, making Tignish 

 and Souris my headquarters. The remarkable feat of connecting 

 these places by 167 miles of railroad has been accomplished 

 (the air line distance is less than 100 miles), the promoters of 

 the road being desirous no doubt that each feature of the land- 

 scape should be viewed by the travelling public from at least 

 three different points of the compass. I also stopped at inter- 

 mediate points. The weather was favorable, mostly bright, the 

 raw winds from the northeast and the brief rainstorms peculiar 

 to the Gulf being the only disagreeable features, and these were 

 less pronounced as July advanced and the sun gained power. 

 What the climate must be in the winter time, when a belt of ice 

 extending as far as the eye can reach surrounds the island, and 

 binds it to the mainland by ever shifting floes, can only be 

 inferred from the chilling breath of the northerly breezes that in 

 summer sweep over the frigid water of the Gulf. The ice is 

 said to disappear in April and spring opens, but the summer is 

 brief and chiefly confined to the months of July and August. 

 Brant regularly remain till the Sth of June. With such a back- 

 ward spring and such a cool and brief summer it is not surpris- 

 ing that agriculture, beyond the production of hay, potatoes and 

 oats, does not flourish. Corn is rarely attempted, and usually 

 suffers by early frost. 



Prince Edward Island has the form of an irregular crescent, 

 the concavity to the northward. It embraces an area of 2133 

 square miles. Its extreme length from East Point to West Point 

 is about one hundred and twenty miles, and its width would 

 probably average about twenty miles, for the coast line is very 

 much indented by bays. By means of them it is, roughly speak- 

 ing, cut into three sections. The westernmost is the nar- 

 rowest, the width increasing eastward to nearly forty miles, 

 the island tapering off again to a point at its eastern extremity. 



