TOWNSEND AND ALLEN: LABRADOR BIRDS. 285 



surface of the country is treeless, woods being only found about the 

 margins of small lakes and in the valleys of the rivers. Trees also 

 decrease in size until, on the southern shores of Ungava Bay, they 

 disappear altogether. The Leaf River, which empties into the bay 

 a few miles north of the mouth of the Koksoak River, is the northern 

 limit of forest trees on the west side of Ungava Bay. Along the east 

 coast of Hudson Bay, Dr. Bell found trees growing a few miles beyond 



the north end of Richmond Gulf So that a line drawn a little 



south of west, from the mouth of the Leaf River to the mouth of the 

 Nastapoka River on Hudson Bay, would give a close approximation 

 to the northern tree limit [and thus to the Hudsonian zone] of western 

 Labrador" (Low, '96, p. 31). In eastern Labrador, Low states 

 that the tree line "skirts the southern shore of Ungava Bay and comes 

 close to the mouth of the George River, from which it turns south- 

 southeast, skirting the western foothills " of the treeless Atlantic 

 coast range, southward at a short distance from the coast, until at the 

 latitude of Battle Harbor, small trees are found in sheltered places 

 at a distance of a mile or less from the open sea. 



There are comparatively few species of birds in the stunted growth 

 at the upper edge of the Hudsonian zone. Most characteristic, how- 

 ever, is the White-crowned Sparrow which is everywhere common 

 in the small trees and continues to be met with as the trees diminish 

 in size and abundance even until they finally become mere scattered 

 clumps or islands reaching into the lower edge of the Arctic zone. 

 Thus the outpost colonies of one or more pairs of these birds were 

 often found in barren situations where a few small dwarfed clumps 

 of fir and spruce gave a little shelter. Such birds of course found 

 it necessary to extend their feeding grounds into the surrounding 

 Arctic zone, and it seemed evident that at the upper limit of their 

 range they should be considered as inhabitants of that area, although 

 clearly invaders from the Hudsonian zone. In common with the 

 White-crowned Sparrows, the Tree Sparrows also inhabit the stunted 

 growth at the upper edge of the Hudsonian area which they appear 

 to choose in preference to the thickets of taller trees in less exposed 

 situations. 



The more extensive tracts of small trees up to fifteen feet in height 

 are the home of numerous other characteristic Hudsonian birds. 

 White-winged Crossbills in small flocks pass occasionally overhead, 

 or make a brief pause among the tops of the evergreens; Redpolls 



