120 



OENITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 15-No. 8 



Off for Newfoundland. 



Homer Bi<;clow left Boston in Jnne on tlie 

 steamer Halifax. After a pleasant sail of 

 thirty-six liours he arrived at Halifax, Nova 

 Scotia, the only exciting feature of the trip 

 being a prolonged struggle between him and 

 Neptune in which he claims to have come 

 within a mile of winning, not giving in till he 

 reached the harbor, and we are inclined to 

 credit that to the effects of the first sight of the 

 giddy Red Coats on the dizzy heights of " The 

 Citadel." In his second letter dated iSt. 

 Johns, (Newfoundland, lie writes : 



" I arrived here after abeautiful voyage. The 

 vessel rollicked and played on the waves which 

 ran mountains high. The steamer was 

 freighted witli cattle and the quarters close. I 

 met a gentleman who, having overheard me in 

 conversation, gave me considerable informa- 

 tion, and ended by informing me of the where- 

 abouts of John C. Cahoon. I had said nothing 

 about eggs, but he whispered gently in my ear, 

 sweet and low, 'going after eggs, ain't you?' 

 Hovv was that for mind reading?" 



He refers to seeing tremendous icebergs 

 which he felt inadequate to describe. 



He had no difficulty in passing his goods 

 through the customs, they being merely of a 

 personal nature: 



His third letter, June lOth, was dated. Pla- 

 centia. He writes: ''After leaving St. Johns I 

 took the train for this point. Oh what a 

 country! Nothing but rocks and mountains, 

 scrub oaks, pines and cedars and very little of 

 them. If after the Lord had made the 

 world he had tossed the refuse in a pile it 

 woidd not have made a better Newfoundland. 

 Well, on arriving at Placentia I asked during 

 conversation if any hunters or collectors had 

 been here? They immediately said 'Oh, 

 yes, Cahoon, the Bird Island man is here 

 now.' 



" I secured a Fish Hawk and Great Black- 

 l)ackedGull; the latter measured (M\y, inches 

 tip to tip, and the plumage was white as snow, 

 except, of course, back and wings." In closing 

 he writes that he finds the people very hospit- 

 able, none being excelled by Mr. Jonas Barter 

 and his good wife, with whom he is stopping. 

 Cahoon liad just left; although he started 

 a hmg time since, he was very much delayed 

 by the failure of his baggage to arrive, it be- 

 ing sent by freight. 



Mr. Bigelow will take notes during his trip, 

 the above being extracts from letters to his 

 mother. 



Why Cahoon is Known as the Bird Island 

 Man : — 



DARING ACT 



Of American Ornithologist at 

 Bird Island. 



HE SCALES A PERPENDICULAR CLIFF THREE HUN- 

 DRED FEET HIGH. 



Shuddering Fishermen Lean on Their 



Oars 



And Witness the Dangerous Ascent. — MUlinvs 

 of nirds. 



A daring feat was accomplished at Cape 

 St. Mary's a few days ago by an American or- 

 nithologist, Mr. J. C. Cahoon. Not far from 

 the lighthouse is an island, commonly called the 

 Bird Island, where different kinds of our sea 

 birds come to breed. This gentleman, wish- 

 ing to procure the different species for his 

 collection, determined to scale it. It is about 

 oOO feet high and perpendicular for about 200 

 feet. 



On the morning of the 10th of July he com- 

 menced the ascent. Quite a number of men 

 from the fishing boats, hearing that he was 

 going up, collected there to see him, for they 

 were under the impression that it could not be 

 done, as two men had already been killed in 

 trying to ascend it. But tliey say that about 

 forty years .ago one man, an Englishman by 

 the name of West, went up and came down 

 again. They, however, can give no proofs of the 

 truth of this story. Having divested himself of 

 part of his clothing — his boots and socks— "-he 

 started to climb. There was nothing for him 

 to catch hold of in some places but the dev- 

 ices and splits in the face of the cliff. It made 

 every one shudder ro see him slowly making 

 his way to the top, holding on to nothing as 

 it seemed — loose rocks tumbling down be- 

 hind him with an echo as loud as thunder. 

 He took his gun with him and a small rope, 

 which was lent to him by J. F. McOrath, Escj., 

 who was at Golden Bay at the time and kindly 

 manned his boat, took him out to the island, 

 and (lid all in his power to help him in his 

 ascent. To get the ro])e up he took with him 

 a ball of small twine, which was fastened to 



