Beacb Combers 57 



sandpipers, and rails, while among the Natatores 

 are the swans, geese, ducks, loons, cormorants, shel- 

 drakes, gulls, terns, gannets, guillemots, grebes, pet- 

 rels, auks, and puffins. 



Greater or lesser numbers of nearly all of these 

 families annually flew (and many of them still fly) 

 the airy trails above the Great Lakes and halted ar 

 the several resting-places which the nature of the 

 country afforded. Prominent among these resting- 

 places for the ofttime weary and storm-driven 

 pilgrims were the sandy reaches now known as 

 Toronto Island, opposite the city of Toronto, situated 

 upon Toronto Bay, an indentation of the shore of 

 Lake Ontario. This formed a perfect paradise for 

 shore and aquatic birds, and to-day the bars, in spite 

 of being overlooked by a city of about two hundred 

 thousand population, are frequented by a variety of 

 the families of both the orders. 



It seems that in the past the island, beaches, and 

 bars of this bay formed one of the most important 

 " road-houses " for feathered travellers along the 

 northward route, and many a rare and valuable 

 specimen unknown to the average sportsman has 

 been there secured. Birds rarely found in Canadian 

 collections, such as the ruff, red phalarope, avocet, 

 and stilt, now and then fell to the guns of men who 

 sought the island before break of day, and who lay 

 patiently in wait till evening shadows closed. A 

 few decades ago one gun might bag anywhere from 

 one hundred to upward of half a thousand plover of 

 various kinds in a single day's shooting, and even 

 now men who understand the annual flights of mi- 

 grants can bag respectable lots of " black-hearts " 



