AUDUBON'S LABRADOR TRIP 



winged scoters — flying from the northwest 

 to the southeast, and of the immense numbers 

 of eiders, murres, and razor-billed auks. He 

 is impressed with the extremely shy and wary 

 character of the waterfowl, "which to me in 

 this wonderfully wild country is surprising." 

 On one occasion he walked four miles up the 

 shore of the Little Natashquan River as far 

 as the falls, but most of the time he spent at 

 his drawing-table, leaving the work of procur- 

 ing specimens to the younger members of his 

 party. He begins his day at two o'clock, "for 

 we have scarcely any darkness now," and at 

 his work he is able to hear some bird songs. 

 He says "so sonorous is the song of the Fox- 

 colored Sparrow that I can hear it for hours, 

 most distinctly, from the cabin where I am 

 drawing, and yet it is distant more than a 

 quarter of a mile." In another place he says: 

 "The Turdus migratorius [Robin] must be the 

 hardiest of the whole genus. I hear it at this 

 moment, eight o'clock at night, singing most 

 joyously its 'Good-night' and 'All's well!' to 

 the equally hardy Labradorians." 



Audubon was astonished at the rapidity 

 of development of the arctic spring on these 



9 



