18 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 12-:N'o. 2 



the top, I could not shoot them from a boat in 

 the water below, and the only place one could 

 land was in a small nook about a mile below 

 the cliffs. So one day we landed there, taking- 

 a time when the tide was lunniug very swiftly 

 towards the place where we had left the boat, 

 and hurrying over to the cliffs, we shot about 

 twenty birds into the water in about as many 

 niHiutes, and then hurried back to the boat, ex- 

 pecting the birds would be drifted about down 

 to where she lay by the time we got there. 

 The whole thing worked to a charm, except 

 that we left the gulls out of our calculations, 

 for of the fifteen Comorants we picked up, 

 there was not one of them but what was so 

 eateu by the gulls that I could do nothing witli 

 them. The next time i tried it, I stationed a 

 man off the cliffs in a boat, and I had better 

 luck. 



Larus argentatus smithsoiiianiis, American 

 Herring Gull. The most common of all the 

 gulls; breeding invariably in colonies, and as 

 far as my experience went, upon the ground. 

 But about Esquimaux Point they are said to 

 breed in the trees as well as on the ground. I 

 had expected to find this species very shy, but 

 the birds of one large colony of fully a thou- 

 sand pair, which I visited in Musquano baj^, 

 were quite the opposite. They flew about in 

 utter fearlessness, many approaching as near as 

 ten feet over my head, where they would re- 

 main motionless as though sustained by some 

 invisible power, all the time eyeing my every 

 movement. 



It seems to make very little difference with 

 them how often their nest is disturbed, for it is 

 next to impossible to drive them from their 

 chosen home. 



Larus delawarensis, Ring-billed Gull. A few 

 moderate sized colonies of this species were res- 

 ident in the vicinity of Cape Whittle, but it is a 

 hard bird to depend upon, as they keep shifting 

 about, owing to their being disturbed so often. 

 Their nests are like the other gulls, and the 

 number of eggs laid never, as far as ray expe- 

 rience went, reached beyond three. 



Sterna tachegrava, Ca^nan Tern. This majes- 

 tic Tern is but a sparing resident along the Lab- 

 rador coast, as I met with but one colony, which 

 was located about twenty miles to the west- 

 ward of Cape Whittle, where I found a colony 

 of some two hundred pair mixed with a larger 

 settlement of Ring-billed, and a few Herring 

 Gulls. Their nests were built upon the ground, 

 and generally contained two egga, never more. 

 Sterna paradiscaa^ Arctic Tern. Of the small- 

 er Teres, I did not kill a bird while on the coast. 



There were a few colonies scattered about on 

 the small grassy islands, in the vicinity of Cape 

 Whittle, and although they were almost always 

 in sight, still they could not be called abundant. 

 All the birds that came near enough to admit 

 of careful observation, proved to be of this 

 species. 



Sula bassana, Gannet. About forty miles to 

 the westward of Esquimaux Point, is Mingan, 

 where a small colony of Gannets have their 

 nesting place, and from careful inquiry, I am 

 positive that there are no other colonies, at 

 least, as far as the Straits of Belle Isle. But 

 after the breeding season, the birds were rather 

 common all along the coast. 



Phalacrocorax carbo, Common C-ormorant. 

 Phalacrocorax dilophus. Double-crested Cormo- 

 rant. While sailing eastward from Esquimaux 

 Point, and when about seventy-five miles dis- 

 tant from there, I met with my first colony of 

 Cormorants, which proved to be a settlement 

 of about twenty pair of Double-crested. Here, 

 fully ten miles from shore, and on a small rock 

 of less than a quarter of an acre in extent and 

 which did not rise over ten feet out of water at 

 high tide, they had their nests ; which were 

 placed promiscuously about on the bare rocks. 

 It was on June 2nd that we met with them, 

 and after some difliculty succedeed in mak- 

 ing a landing, when we found the nests 

 were constructed entirely of kelp and seaweed, 

 freshly pulled from the bottom of the ocean. 

 None of them held over four eggs and as they 

 afterwards proved to be all fresh, it was un- 

 doubtedly a second laying, the first having fall- 

 en to the eggers. 



At Cape Whittle the only other colony I met 

 with was located, and here on cliffs fully one 

 hundred and fifty or two hundred feet high, 

 about two hundred pair had their nests. They 

 were all built of freshly broken twigs which 

 the birds got from a small pond a little way 

 back from the cliffs, where by swimming 

 around close to the shore the birds could break 

 oft' the branches from the small bushes above 

 and fly with them to their chosen homes. The 

 Double-crested built all over the cliff wherever 

 a resting place could be found, but the "Com- 

 mon" variety only nested close to the top. 

 When I first visited the rookery on June 19th, 

 many nests contained large young, which went 

 to prove what the natives said, that they com- 

 menced to build long before the snows of win- 

 ter had disappeared, and they told me that it 

 was not a rare thing to see nests placed where 

 they would undoubtedly be tumbled into the 

 sea as soon as their treacherous foundations 



