96 MOVING TO « WINTER QUARTERS." 



the young birds, is excellent eating and they are shot in great 

 numbers ; it is called the hardest bird to kill, next to a loon, that 

 inhabits the waters of the coast. 



The pigeon breeds in large numbers on several of the small isl- 

 ands along the coast. On one small island colonies of this bird 

 breed exclusively. They lay usually three eggs in some exposed 

 situation or in the cleft of some rock, making no nest, and let 

 the sun do the greatest share of the hatching; they are oblong 

 and ovoid in shape, tapering suddenly, the ground color being 

 from greenish to pure white, and the varied streaks and blotches 

 or spots scattered more or less thickly all over their surface, es- 

 pecially so in a ring around the top of the egg, are of black, or vari- 

 ous shades of brown. Nearly all the birds of this family have what 

 are apparently purplish spots, but these are black primarily and 

 appear purple only from a slight covering of the white lime of the 

 shell itself. 



The weather had now become so moderated that the next few 

 days were employed in "moving in," that is, in transferring the 

 household goods and utensils together with the people and live 

 stock into their abode for the long, coming winter. The house was 

 much like the one we were about to leave, but rather more com- 

 pact and a great deal warmer. 



With the exception of a species of short-eared owl, peculiar to 

 the region, no particularly new birds had been obtained. Though 

 owls are generally regarded as rare in this region, I believe them 

 more common than usually supposed, several of the brown colored 

 species having been observed. In regard to the one mentioned, 

 it was shot by one of the men who said that about dusk the bird 

 attacked him and he could not drive it away until he had put the 

 whole charge of shot through its body, and so badly blown it to 

 pieces that I was unable to do anything with it but save a few 

 feathers by which to determine the species. It appears to be an ex- 

 traordinarily dark variety of our common short-eared owl {Brac/iy- 

 otus palustris) . 



