2 DwiGJiT, Summer Birds of Prince Edward Island. \\!m 



birds whoso acquaintance I liad already made in otiier parts of 

 Canada, I nevertheless devoted a couple of weeks last summer 

 to exploring the island, and am now able to say what ispecies are 

 characteristic snmnier residents; and a few words ahont them 

 may not come amiss to those of us who may he familiar with 

 them only dming the migration seasons. 



The length of my stay was from June 23 to July 9, and hy 

 means of the n:irrovv-gauge railroad. su])p!cmentcd by liorse 

 power, I visited l)olli extremities of the island, making Tignish 

 and Souris mv headipiarters. The remarkable feat of connecting 

 these places bv 167 miles of railroad has been accomplished 

 (the air line distance is less than 100 miles), the promoteis of 

 the road bemg desirous no doubt that each feature of the Itind- 

 scape should be viewed by the travelling public from at least 

 three ditVerent points of the compass. I also stopped at inter- 

 mediate points. The weather was favorable, mostly brigiit, the 

 raw winds from the northeast and the brief lainstorms peculiar 

 to the (inlf l)eing tlie only disigieeable t'catures. and these were 

 less pronounced as July advanced and tlie sun gained |)owei-. 

 What the climate must be in tlie winter time, when a belt of ice 

 extending as tVr as the eye can reach surrounds tlie island, and 

 binds it to the mainland by ever shifting Hoes, can only be 

 inferred from the chilling brt-ath of the northerly breezes that in 

 summer sweep over tlij frigid water of the Gulf. The ice is 

 said to disappear in April and sprin-r opens, but the summer is 

 brief and chielly confined to the months of Jul\' and August. 

 Brant regularly remain till the Sth of June. Willi such a back- 

 ward s})ring and such a cool and brief sunnner it is not sur[)ris- 

 ing that agriculture, beyoiul the production of hav, potatoes and 

 oats, does not llomish. Corn is rarely attempted, anil usually 

 sullers by early frost. 



Prince Edwanl Island has the form of an irregular crescent, 

 the concavity to the northward. It embraces an area of 2133 

 square miles. Its extreme length from East Point to West Point 

 is about one hundred and twent}' miles, and its width woidd 

 probably average about twenty miles, for the coast line is very 

 much indented by bays. By means of them it is, roughly speak- 

 ing, cut into three sections. The westernmost is the nar- 

 rowest, the width increasing eastward to nearly forty miles, 

 the island tapering olf again to a point at its eastern extremity. 



