BIRDS. 407 



even a scanty description is impracticable in this connec- 

 tion. 



Tiie climate is scarcely less diverse, the range of the 

 thermometer at Fort Chimo being, for the period men- 

 tioned above, 86^ degrees for the maximum, and just 

 50 degrees below zero for the minimum, giving a range 

 of 136.5 degrees for that period. 



Winter begins (zero of temperature) about the ist of 

 November and continues to the last oi April. Snow 

 falls every month in the year, and the lowest temperature 

 of each month in the year is never above the freezing 

 point. The warmest night showed only 54 degrees. 

 Snow remains from the last of September to the end of 

 May ; snow-shoes have been used as late as the 19th of 

 May. Rain seldom falls before the nth of May, and 

 rarely after the middle of October. 



The bird-life is abundant in individuals if not in species. 

 Some of the birds which most certainly occur within the 

 territory, yet of which no satisfactory evidence of actual 

 occurrence has been recorded, are with one or twO' 

 exceptions omitted for obvious reasons. Tringa mari- 

 tima, ior instance, certainly occurs somewhere along the 

 coast, but has not been detected and recorded ; the same 

 with species of Fulix. 



Reference is made to the following authorities, and 

 extracts made without comment or responsibility for 

 their assertions : 



Audubon, J. J. Birds of America; seven volumes, published 

 from 1840 to 1844. 



Nuttall. Manual of Ornithology, 2d edition, 1840. 



Verrill, A. E. Notes on the Natural History of Anticosti, 

 summer of 1861. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural 

 History, vol. ix., pp. 132 to 150, inclusive. 



