40 Bird-Life in Labrador. 



think what to say concerning each, were it not that birds del 

 differ in their habits somewhat according to their location, 

 and the varied scenes, trials, and triumphs through which one 

 goes in the pursuit of the bird life of any new region are al- 

 ways fresh and interesting. I read my title, hairy wood- 

 pecker. In writing lists, papers, books even how many times 

 have I penned that name, and each time to add something, be 

 it never so small, that was new, I hope at least, to our knowl- 

 edge of the species. So in life, we go over and over the same 

 scenes, in memory and in reality, but so varied from their con- 

 nection with friendships and external objects that, in their new 

 dress, we scarcely recognize them. Imagine my surprise then, 

 in distant Labrador, one day, October 28, at the sudden appa- 

 rition of a small calico-colored bird, vigorously pecking away 

 at the dead limb of a tall old white birch tree, not a dozen 

 rods away from where I stood viewing the remains of an old 

 beaver's dam, which blocked the channel of a wide gully 

 through which a diminutive rill trickled into the wide pond a 

 few feet below. Be still, my heart, be still ! Am I in the 

 woods just back of my Massachusetts' home ? And is not 

 that a responsive hammer at the distant left ? I wake to the 

 realities of the situation immediately, and a moment later a 

 fine specimen of the present species tumbles, wing over wing, 

 to the ground. I bag it and rush for the mate, which proves 

 to be a downy. Thus I secure two strong reminders of that 

 same well-known woods just back of my Massachusetts' home 

 ' even among the deep snows and cold weather of far-off 

 Labrador. My notes of these two species are short and to the 

 point relative to its occurrence here. I shot one of these 

 birds the same day with a specimen of pubescens, in a lonely 

 dell by a pond, on an old dead tree. It was not a bit wild, 

 and allowed me to come quite close to it. Its habits appeared 

 to be almost exactly like that of the same species at home* 

 Others have been reported as shot by parties further up the 

 river, and it appears not rare along the edges of the ponds and 

 rivers inland. It probably resides all the year around and 

 breeds. 



