4 ToWNSEND, Some more Labrador Notes. [j^~ 



are worthy of note. Of the Hudsonian Curlew I saw 25 on the 

 beach at Natashquan on July 25 and 12 flying about the barren 

 hills near Natashquan village on August S. They were all very 

 wild. Curlew berries, mountain cranberries and bake-apples 

 (cloud berries') wore abundant there and the natives said that the 

 Curlew fed on them. As recorded by Allen and myself in our 

 ' Birds of Labrador' ' Audubon slated that the Hudsonian Curlew 

 Avas 'entirely unknown' on this coast, but Stearns in 1SS0 and '81, 

 and Frazer in L884, both found it not a rare migrant in the fall. 

 Mr. Johan Beets told Mr. Bent and myself in 1909 that le courlis, — 

 by which he must have meant this species, — was increasing on the 

 coast. This is interesting in connection with the apparent increase 

 of the Hudsonian Curlew in Essex County, Mass.- in the last GO 

 years. No Eskimo Curlew were seen. 



Mr. Bent and I found two Piping Plover on the beach at Natash- 

 quan on May 31, 1909. This was the first record of this species for 

 the Labrador Peninsula. Chi July 25, 1912, I saw two adults and 

 two fully grown young in a family group on this same beach. 



So much for the water birds of this coast] their numbers are 

 steadily diminishing for the eggs, nesting-birds and young are the 

 prey not only of the Indians but o{ the fishermen all along the 

 coast. It is to be hoped that adequate protection will be given 

 them before it is too late. 



In the trip up the Natashquan River the following birds were 

 identified, and are worth recording as so little is known of the 

 interior o( Labrador. The small number of species and of indi- 

 viduals is partly to be accounted for by the lateness of the season 

 and the unpropitious weather. A reason for the scarcity of ducks 

 and other water-fowl is the fact that the river is one of the highways 

 of migration of the Montagnais Indians. They descend it in the 

 latter part of May with their packs of furs obtained in the interior. 

 Alter disposing of the furs to the traders, attending to their religious 

 festivities in the Catholic Mission, and feasting on sea birds' I 

 and flesh they return up the river in August. 



1. Gavia immer. LOON. — Two or three seen. 

 'J. Gavia stellata. Red-throated Loon. — A few near the mouth 

 of the river. 



i Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., July, L907. 

 " Birds or Kssox County, p. 190. 



