TURNER.] 



ANIMAL LIFE. 175 



plentiful, yet is common euougli to keep the Indian in wholsome dread 

 of its vicious disposition wben enraged. 



The smaller mammals occur in greater or less abundance according 

 to the quality and (piantity of food to be obtained. The wolves, foxes, 

 and wolverines are pretty evenly distributed throughout the region. 

 The hares are found in the wooded tracts for the smaller species and on 

 the barren regions for the larger species. 



The actual residents were accertained to be less than twenty species 

 for the northern portion of the Ungava district. 



Of the actual residents the two species of the genus Lagopus are the 

 most abundant of all birds in the region, and form an important article 

 of food for all classes of people inhabiting the district. The winter ex- 

 erts an important influence on the smaller resident species. During the 

 winter of 1882-'83 the number of the four sjiecies obtained of the genus 

 AcitiitMs was ahuost incredible. Their notes might be heard at any time 

 during that season, which was cold, though regularly so, and not spe- 

 cially stormy. In the winter of 1883-84 not a single individual was ob- 

 served from the middle of November to the last of March. The same 

 remarks may well apply to the white- winged crossbill (Loxin leiicoptera), 

 which was very abundant the first winter, but during the last winter a 

 very small flock only was observed and these were apparently vagrants. 



Among the water birds, certain species which were expected to occur 

 were conspicuously absent. The character of the country forbids them 

 rearing their young, as there is little to feed upon ; and only a few 

 breed in the immediate vicinity of Fort (Jhimo. Among the gulls, 

 Lams argentatus smithsonianm is certainly the only one breeding in 

 abundance within Ungava bay. Of the terns, the Arctic tern {Sterna 

 pariidise(v) was the only one ascertained to breed in Hudson strait. I 

 am not certain that they do breed there every year. Although I saw 

 them in early July, 1883, under conditions that led me to believe that 

 they were on their way to their nests, yet it was not until 1884 that a 

 number of eggs were secured near that locality. 



Of the smaller waders, but two species were actually ascertained to 

 breed in the vicinity of Fort Chimo, yet two or three other species were 

 observed under such circumstances as to leave no doubt that they also 

 breed there. 



"HE NATIVE INHABITANTS OF THE COUNTRY— GENERAL- 

 SKETCH. 



THE ESKIMO. 



The northern portions of the coast of the region under consideration 

 are inhabited by the Eskimo, who designate themselves, as usual, by 

 the term "Innuit," people (plural of innuls, "a person"). That they 

 have been much moditied by contact with the whites is not to be doubted, 



