Bird- Life in Labrador. 81 



both are called shags, but the latter are generally designated 

 by the Indian name, which is, I am informed, wapitougan. 

 Both species appear to breed in equal abundance. I have seen 

 thousands at a time lining the rocks. They sit upright in rows, 

 upon the edges of the rocks and cliffs, and seldom one sits be- 

 hind another, so that, to accommodate them, every edge of 

 ever crag presents a living fringe of cormorants ; a lively- 

 looking .trimming just as some shot is fired that sends them 

 all into the air. The eggs are two to three and, though really 

 bluish-white in color, are almost invariably covered, more or 

 less completely, with a calcareous deposit that renders them 

 white and chalky. At a distance these rocks present the ap- 

 pearance of being covered with snow, but a nearer approach 

 shows that this is a covering of guano from the continual 

 droppings of the birds ; while the tops of the rocks are 

 thickly imbedded with an accumulation of guano from the 

 same cause, firmly stamped down by the continual patter ings 

 of innumerable feet. 



DOUBLE CRESTED CORMORANT 



Phalacrocorax dilopkus. (Sw.) NUTT. 



THIS species is so associated with the last that it would re- 

 quire a much closer investigation than any which I had the 

 time or opportunity to give to separate the habits of the two. 

 Though both species seem to be equally abundant, this latter 

 is doubtless the rarer. 



POMARINE JAEGER 



Stercorarius pomatorhinus. (TEMM.) LAWK. 



As is usually the case, the birds which we are the most eager 

 to learn about are those of which we can obtain the least in- 

 formation. All of these jaeger gulls doubtless occur off the 

 coast of Labrador, and this species has been several times de- 

 tected by gunners and other persons visiting the coast. I found 



