Bird- Life in Labrador. 37 



and remaining about wherever there is any putrid flesh. It 

 apparently loves to walk or fly about on or near the tops of 

 the hilly crests on the mainland, and rest on the trees near the 

 frozen* bays in winter. It frequents the seaeoast, and is com- 

 mon about the inland ponds and lakes. It replaces here the 

 crow, which is occasionally though very rarely seen so far East. 

 One man told me that a few years previous an adult pure 

 white raven was shot on the coast. 



COMMON CROW 



Corvus frugivorus. BARTR. 



SOME of the inhabitants told me that they had seen crows 

 up Esquimaux River. It seems highly probable that strag- 

 glers might occur so far East ; as the two birds are so differ- 

 ent, both in size and cry, they would not be easily con- 

 founded. 



CANADA JAY Whiskey Jack 



Perisoreus canadensis. (L.) BP. 



A more meddlesome, noisy, independent young fellow than 

 this same good-for-nothing whiskey jack probably never ex- 

 isted ; and yet you would grow even fond of him for his very 

 impudence, if nothing else, were you to spend six long Winter 

 months snowed up ten miles in the interior of Labrador, with 

 birds and animals your almost sole companions. This jay is at 

 times very wild and at others very tame. Its appearance 

 while flying is much like that of the white-rumped shrike, at 

 least so it struck me when first I saw it flying. I have usually 

 found it wild, and very difficult to approach. I have pursued 

 it over field and thicket, in high woods and from one tall 

 treetop to another for hours together before succeeding in 

 shooting it. In its cunning and sagacity it much resembles 

 its neighbor, the blue jay, but its notes are very different. It 

 is generally very noisy, a single pair making disturbance 



