A Vacation in Quebec. 139 



right in the wilderness. On a knoll at the edge of the village, 

 the site of the public school, were heard and seen the Pine 

 Warbler, Veery, Hermit Thrush, Least Flycatcher, many 

 Chipping Sparrows, also one each of Catbird, Baltimore Or- 

 iole, and Ruby-throated Hummingbird, while the Phoebe was 

 on a nest in the woodshed. 



Inlet is no town, no village, not even a hamlet, but just a 

 post office, a log cabin, which is at the same time the home 

 of the lively little Alsatian-German postmaster. It is situ- 

 ated in the Laurentian hills, granite ; sand, woods, lakes and 

 swamps everywhere, but extremely poor land for the agri- 

 culturist, and one can but wonder what induced the few scat- 

 tered farmers here to come into such a wilderness, when good 

 land was to be had just as cheap near the Ottawa River and 

 the railway. There were slight frosts even as late as June 

 26th. But to return to the birds. 



Despite the chilliness of the morning half-past four found 

 me in the low-lying spruce-cedar swamp, which begins at the 

 end of the post office farm yard. Here a chorus of tiny bird 

 songs green one — the Chickadee's fsrec-tsray, the Brown 

 Creeper's and Red-breasted Nuthatch's feeble, lisping song, 

 and the Golden-crowned Kinglet's odd performance, which 

 in volume and form stands between the songs of the Black- 

 poll and Black and White Warblers, but is more rapid and 

 crescendo, making the impression that the performer is rap- 

 idly sliding from the interior of the tree out along a branch 

 to its tip. A Parula Warbler sings from the top of a tall 

 spruce, nearby are the Black-throated Blue and the Black- 

 throated Green and Canada Warblers, while the Nashville is 

 partial to stands of aspen and the Chestnut-sided to bushes 

 on slightly higher ground. 



Of Finches the purple one may often be heard pouring otit 

 his soul in song from the tip of a tree, and the ever-present 

 White-throated Sparrow repeats his " Dear, dear Canada, 

 Canada," as the song is paraphrased by loyal sons of King 

 George's dominion. This bird is just as characteristic of 

 bushy swamps and bogs as of dry knolls which are covered 



