December, 1919] 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



17 



jadis, cette plage est encore pleine de beaux et 

 grands arbres de plusieurs sories, et il n'\) a qua 

 etendre la main pour cueuillir sur les couldres 

 tranches, les grappes de noissilles."^ 



Cartier's landing place, the so-called "Ruisseau 

 a la lessive" is yet in its natural slate, and it is very 

 hard to believe that ecological conditions have 

 changed enough in four centuries to expel the hazel- 

 nut from the island. Were it not for the express 

 mentioning of the fruits, our opinion would be that 

 Cartier was simply mistaken as to the identity of 

 the shrub, and that his hazelnut was nothing else 

 than the Common Northern Alder [Alnus incana 

 (L.) Moenchl which is very abundant in the damp 

 places about "Ruisseau a la lessive." The Euro- 

 pean Hazelnut is taller than ours and in this re- 

 spect much like our Alder. 



The sloping gravels that lead from the tableland 

 to the beach are occupied by an association of trees 

 and shrubs very likely — as hinted above — in their 

 natural state. At the time of our visiting the white 

 corymbs of a thorn (Crataegus flabellala (Bosc.) K. 

 Koch.) were to be seen all over together with the 

 ripe catkins of Salix rostrata Richardson var. luxur- 

 ians Fernald. Others were Nemopaaihes mucro- 

 nata (L.) Trel., Amelanchier sanguinea (Pursh) 

 DC, var. gaspensis Wiegand, and the northern var- 

 iety of the Balsam Poplar (Populus balsamifera L., 

 var. Michauxii Henry). This interesting tree ex- 

 hibited its peculiar short cordate leaves. 



Pointe-a-la-Baleine, the lower end of the island, 



sCasgrain, Abbe R. H.. Exeursion k I'lle-aux- 

 Condres. 



is occupied by a flat and low gravel barren where 

 only isolated patches of Juniperus siberica Burgsd., 

 and stunted white spruce have been able to main- 

 tain their own. Not a blade of grass, not a weed, 

 not a dandelion. The dwarfed trees assume the 

 peculiar short conical shape and the densely felted 

 habit observed on Anticosti. Sometimes the lower 

 branches have developed and lie flat on the ground, 

 and in a few instances, the tree, after ending in a 

 point spreads anew giving to the whole the appear- 

 ance of two superposed trees. This restricted 

 growth and accompanying modifications is no doubt 

 due to the continuous stress of the prevailing wind, 

 the well-knownd nord-est of the lower St. Lawrence 

 region. 



One of the most puzzling things we collected 

 during our short stay at Isle-aux-Coudres was a 

 striking seminal variation of the Sugar Maple (Acer 

 saccharum L.) It is known as distinct by the 

 natives and Mr. Desgagne calls it "Erable blanche." 

 There is a grove of these trees at the Pointe-aux- 

 Sapins, past "Ruisseau Rouge" and not far from 

 the church. While taking a walk over there after 

 supper in search of sunset effects, we noticed the 

 peculiar appearance of the thin leaves, glaucous un- 

 derneath some of which are perfectly three-lobed, 

 and the remarkable fruit with wings curving in- 

 wards. The tree is clearly the var. glaucum of 

 Sargent in its essential characteristics. We do not 

 think it is necessary, however, in the absence of 

 material from somewhere else, to impose upon the 

 plant a new name, as it may be but a freak of a 

 teratological instance. 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Breeding of Mourning Do\e Near Ottawa, 

 Ontario. — On the afternoon of July 3, 1919, it 

 was reported to me that a Passenger Pigeon was 

 nesting in the orchard of Mr. R. T. Richardson, of 

 Woodroffe Farm, near Britannia. I went out in 

 the evening and Mr. Richardson showed me the 

 nest, on a horizontal branch of an apple tree, on 

 the northeast side, about six feet from the ground. 

 The bird remained quietly on the nest and allowed 

 us to examine her from all sides, first from a dis- 

 tance v^nth field glasses, and later from a distance 

 of only three or four feet. The bird had the 

 typical light buffy grayish head and neck, with paler 

 throat, and a small dark spot on each side of the 

 head; wings with some dark spots — an undoubted 

 specimen of the common Mourning Dove, Zenaidura 

 macroura caroltncnsis (Linnaeus). The lack of 

 slaty blue on head and upper throat and the small 

 size easily proved that the bird was not th» Pas- 



senger Pigeon. The Mourning Dove is rare this 

 far north in the east, although it ranges well to the 

 northward in the prairie provinces. Mr. Richard- 

 son said that the dove had been sitting on eggs for 

 about two weeks ,and when she finally fluttered off 

 to the ground and away over the grass, we saw two 

 blackish pin-feathered squabs on the scanty plat- 

 form of a nest. The Passenger Pigeon is now be- 

 lieved to be extinct, but all of the many supposed 

 occurrences of this species which have been in- 

 vestigated carefully have proved to be Mourning 

 Doves. The two species have a general resem- 

 blance to each other, in shape, color, and propor- 

 tions, and may be confusing when seen alone. The 

 observer who will remember that the Mourning 

 Dove averages only about 12.5 inches in total length 

 while the Passenger Pigeon averages 17.0 inches as 

 well as being fully twice the bulk of the former 



