58 Sporting Sketches 



(red-backed sandpipers) and other waders in the 

 spring. 



Among the rarer birds known to have been killed 

 on the island and adjacent marshes are the white 

 pelican, trumpeter swan, white-fronted goose, snow- 

 goose, king eider, that rara avis the harlequin duck, 

 canvasback, and sandhill crane. 



Another famous resort of these migrants was the 

 marshy country about Lake St. Clair, the link be- 

 tween Lakes Huron and Erie, and on these grounds, 

 a few years ago, when I was completing one of the 

 finest collections of birds in Canada, I saw, handled, 

 mounted, or shot specimens of the white pelican, 

 white heron, sandhill crane, avocet, red and gray 

 phalarope, cormorant, brant, trumpeter swan, and 

 snow-goose, and other rara aves, among a miscella- 

 neous assortment of swimmers and waders. 



Some of these birds have been questioned by 

 well-informed ornithologists, but the best possible 

 evidence of their occasional presence in the resorts 

 referred to can be shown in the mounted specimens 

 which exist to-day as perfect as when they left the 

 taxidermist's hands. No expert can mistake the 

 phalaropes if he is familiar with the foot of the bird, 

 or the avocet if he knows the bill, and in regard to 

 the white pelican and white heron, the specimens 

 are not only preserved in good condition, but were 

 kept for some time at my home alive, the birds in 

 question being secured wing-tipped by lucky shots. 



Still another resting-place and those who shot 

 there a few years ago will not soon forget its swarm- 

 ing feathered guests is the "beautiful Rond Eau 

 harbor, on Lake Erie. Here a grand land-locked 



