50 ON THE GREAT CHURCHILL RIVER 



in silvery foam — an inspiring scene of sound and 

 motion and colour. . . . And there was an old 

 friend : the Tennessee Warbler, whose kind par- 

 ticularly haunt the shores of rapids, singing 

 joyfully of summer and boundless activity, seem- 

 ingly in competition with the prolonged purring 

 sound of the rapid, which clearly pleases him. 



Next morning we passed the great marshes at 

 the entrance to Pelican Lake — marsh that teemed 

 with duck in the full pride of brilliant summer 

 plumage. Mallard, Pintail, and Shovellers were 

 the most abundant, and Green-winged Teal and 

 Golden-eye in lesser numbers. In addition to 

 those birds there were great colonies of Common 

 and Black Terns nesting among the marsh-reeds, 

 and many Yellow-headed Blackbirds — hoarse, 

 shrill-voiced reed-birds, piebald in aspect, with 

 their black and yellow markings of sharp contrast. 



The air was dotted with swinging groups of 

 birds we had disturbed, winging their way for- 

 ward, then backward ; while the water and marsh 

 held many more. It transpired, as the months 

 passed and we travelled on through lake and 

 river, that this lake (Pelican Lake) was recalled 

 as the one containing the greatest abundance of 

 waterfowl. It held, however, one disappoint- 

 ment — there were no pelicans — at least none 

 were seen. Possibly they once inhabited the 

 locality, as the name of the lake implies, but now 

 have departed. 



Pelican Lake was very irregular on all sides, 

 with long bays biting deep into the mainland ; 

 also there were many wooded islands, mostly of 

 fair elevation, standing well out of the water. 



