136 DOWNS ON THE LAND BIRDS OF NOVA SCOTIA. 



Nova Scotia is very favourably placed for observers, and I feel 

 confident that if a more extended scries of observations in this res- 

 pect were made, we should become possessed of valuable informa- 

 tion now unknown to us. Vast flights of wild fowl pass and repass 

 over this peninsula in spring and autumn, to and from the coasts of 

 Labrador and Newfoundland, and even still farther north ; and it 

 would be extremely interesting to ascertain with what precision 

 such arrivals take place each year, and whether an early spring or 

 a late autumn have any particular influence upon such movements. 

 In my humble opinion I am inclined to think that such casual 

 occurrences have little eflect upon the feathered tribe, but that they 

 move north at the close of winter and south at its commence- 

 ment, with great regularity, guided alone by that wonderful instinct 

 which is implanted within them by their Allwise Creator. 



(I, . 



