28 Bird-Life in Labrador. 



along the coast, ever a characteristic but never a common bird, 

 so far as I could discover. I saw several specimens in various 

 houses where I visited, though I shot but one myself while on 

 the coast. It was taken October 14, at Old Fort Island. It 

 was feeding at dusk near the kelp on the shore and with sev- 

 eral other birds, probably of the same species. They were very 

 wild, and I watched a long while and pursued them sev- 

 eral times before finally capturing one. It was quite wild. 

 The flight and notes so deceived me at first that I thought 

 them shore larks. The development of the hind claw of this 

 bird, from which it receives its name, is something remarkable, 

 it often reaching three-fourths of an inch and over in length. 

 I doubt if it occurs in Summer. 



SAVANNA SPARROW 



Passerculus savana. (WiLS.) BP. 



AND now we come to the characteristic "chip-bird" of Lab- 

 rador as well as of the whole " Xorth shore," everywhere com- 

 mon and a resident, excepting in Winter, and breeding in 

 abundance with its nest in every dooryard and under every 

 clump and bush of the field, or every bunch of sedges along 

 the shore. At all times and in all weathers you can count 

 them by the scores in sight of the dooryard, and about every 

 field and hedge on island or mainland along the coast. It is ; 

 perhaps, the most abundant of all the small laud birds that in- 

 habit these regions. It is a tame and familiar little fellow, 

 and feeds without fear about the doorsteps and in the door- 

 yard, building its nest, laying its eggs, and rearing its young 

 often in grassy clumps not two rods from the house. They 

 are common all over the islands and on the mainland, and 

 their song is a well-know attraction to a native of the place. 

 So reads the note book, thus far confirming all that has been 

 said in the previous paragraph, and which was written entirely 

 from memory ; and what further does it say ? I shot a good 

 many of them and found them displaying an unusually decid- 



