THE LABRADOR JOURNAL 423 



the place of the Migratory Pigeon ; it has now arrived ; I 

 have seen many hundreds this afternoon, and shot seven. 

 They fly in compact bodies, with beautiful evolutions, 

 overlooking a great extent of country ere they make 

 choice of a spot on which to alight; this is done wher- 

 ever a certain berry, called here " Curlew berry," 1 proves 

 to be abundant. Here they balance themselves, call, 

 whistle, and of common accord come to the ground, as 

 the top of the country here must be called. They devour 

 every berry, and if pursued squat in the manner of Par- 

 tridges. A single shot starts the whole flock; off they fly, 

 ramble overhead for a great distance ere they again alight. 

 This rambling is caused by the scarcity of berries. This 

 is the same bird of which three specimens were sent to 

 me by William Oakes, of Ipswich, Mass. The iceberg has 

 been broken into thousands of pieces by the gale. 



August 4- Still raining as steadily as ever ; the morning 

 was calm, and on shore the mosquitoes were shockingly 

 bad, though the thermometer indicates only 49°. I have 

 been drawing at the Numenius borealis; I find them diffi- 

 cult birds to represent. The young men went on shore 

 and brought me four more; every one of the lads observed 

 to-day the great tendency these birds have, in squatting to 

 elude the eye, to turn the tail towards their pursuer, and 

 to lay the head flat. This habit is common to many of 

 the Tringas, and some of the Ckaradrius. This species of 

 Curlew, the smallest I ever saw, feeds on the berries it 

 procures, with a rapidity equalled only by that of the 

 Passenger Pigeon; in an instant all the ripe berries on 

 the plant are plucked and swallowed, and the whole coun- 

 try is cleared of these berries as our Western woods are 

 of the mast. In their evolutions they resemble Pigeons 

 also, sweeping over the ground, cutting backward and for- 

 ward in the most interesting manner, and now and then 

 poising in the air like a Hawk in sight of quarry. There 



1 Empetrum nigrum. 



