1897] Young— Birds of the Magdalen Islands. 153 



the Parsonage, I saw nothing of interest. The evening was cold 

 and quite frosty. 



June 30th. — This morning I walked through the woods of 

 spruce and fir to the sea shore and met with a number of birds, 

 but very few eggs. The Hudsonian tit is not uncommon, and 

 in a stump about two feet high, I found a nest with seven young 

 birds that could just fly. The nest was a very scanty affair 

 almost on a level with the ground, and was approached from the 

 top of the stump, not from any hole in the side. Later, I found 

 four eggs of the Savannah sparrow, incubation advanced; the nest 

 was in a tuft of grass in a very swampy place near the shore. 

 On the way home I saw a number of common terns and herring 

 gulls ; by a large pond of brackish water a greater yellow-legs 

 (the only one I saw on the Islands), and several ducks with 

 young ones ; among the scrubby spruce trees a blue-headed 

 vireo, a pine-grosbeak, and two white-winged cross-bills. 



July 1st was a very wet stormy day ; the following day was 

 not much better until the afternoon, but I started along the 

 beach towards Amherst Island and met with several pairs of 

 piping-plover, and tw^o small companies of least sandpipers, one 

 consisting of five, the other of seven. They were very tame and 

 were feeding above high-water mark on the beach between the 

 sea and a large pond of brackish water. I took them to be male 

 birds by their bright dark plumage, and conjectured that the 

 females were possibly breeding in the salt marsh near the pond, 

 as in the case of the nest previously found I saw no sign of the 

 male bird. 



July 3rd. — This morning I caught some trout in the small 

 brook that flows by the Parsonage, and watched several white- 

 winged cross-bills. I also saw two common, cross-bills' ; pine- 

 grosbeaks, young ones,' I think, one of, which bathed itself very 

 freely in the brook ; and a ruby-crowned wren. Besides these 

 birds I saw a pair of blue-jays, a white-throated sparrow (the 



