384 LABRADOR 



Among the tube-nosed swimmers, the greater and sooty 

 shearwaters may sometimes be found in summer in flocks 

 of several thousand along this rugged coast. These birds, 

 however, do not breed here. In fact, they are spending 

 their winter in the neighbourhood, for they breed in the 

 Antarctic regions in their summer, our winter. Wilson's 

 petrel also wanders here in the same way, while the stormy 

 petrel wanders from its breeding grounds along the coast 

 of the British Isles. Leache's petrel, however, is a true 

 inhabitant, and breeds on the Labrador coast. Both the 

 common and the double-crested cormorant, weird-looking 

 birds, commonly called "shags," breed on the southern 

 shore. A small colony of gannets also are still to be found 

 there. 



Many species of ducks migrate along the Labrador coast, 

 seeking and returning from their breeding places farther 

 north. Others breed on the coast or in the interior on the 

 shores of rivers or ponds. Perhaps the most conspicuous 

 bird in this group, one that still attempts to hide its nest 

 from devastating man or Eskimo dog, along the shores of 

 the sea-coast, is the American eider. In its nest it lays from 

 five to eight large, pale greenish eggs slightly tinged with 

 olive. These eggs it protects and keeps warm with the 

 eider-down which it plucks from its breast. They are 

 large birds, and generally fly in single file low over the water. 

 The strikingly marked males, with the black bellies and 

 white breasts, necks, and backs, are easily recognized. The 

 female is a great brownish bird, looking very dark in some 

 lights, and entirely lacks distinctive markings. Both sexes 

 have, however, a characteristic way of holding the bill 

 pointing obliquely downward at an angle, instead of straight 



