278 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



i 



mink. The presence of the wild cat is uncertain. Fewer 

 species of the ordinary migratory birds, visitors of tlie 

 Lower Provinces, are found here. At midsummer, in the 

 neighbourhood of St. John\s, I have noticed the absence 

 of the night-hawk, so common a bird on the Continent. 

 Neither were fire-flies, which were scintillating in myriads 

 over the swamps in Nova Scotia at the time, to be seen. 

 Many birds, however, passing over, or merely resting for 

 a week or two on their way, on the eastern shores of 

 Acadie, visit Newfoundland to breed, such as the 

 Canada goose, fox-coloured sparrow (F. iliaca), snipe, and 

 others, whilst migration of American species has a still 

 further range to the north-east, and American birds form 

 a large proportion of the avi-fauna of Greenland, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Eeinhardt. The woodcock is not indigenous 

 to "Newfoundland ; and, strange to say, the only specimen 

 shot quite recently near St. John's was a European 

 bird. 



Considering the immense portion of this island which 

 is claimed by water, bogs, and swamps, the well-ascer- 

 tained absence of reptilia is singular. In the peninsula 

 of Avalon I have plodded frequently along the edges of 

 ponds and swamps, hoping to see some little croaker take 

 a header from the bank, or in search of snakes by sunny 

 woodland slopes — situations where they might be found 

 at every few paces on the mainland — but all in vain. 

 Indeed, more than once has the experiment been tried of 

 turning oat some of the large green-headed frogs (E. 

 clamitans), to end in failure: in a few days they would 

 all be found stifi" on their backs. Cormack met with 

 neither frog, snake, nor toad, on his journey across the 

 main island, and observes that his Indians had never 



