TO THE STARTING-POINT 



season no black-throated green warblers were 

 to be found at Piashte Bay or Natashquan, 

 and it is evident that they pass through the 

 coastal strip and breed only in the interior, 

 which, although farther north, is warmer. The 

 reverse is the case with the black-poll warbler, 

 which breeds abundantly along the still colder, 

 more Arctic coast to the eastward and is rare 

 on the forested coast and in river valleys. 

 Here at Piashte Bay it is not so common as on 

 the coast to the eastward of Natashquan. The 

 redstart, that bird with Belgian colors, black, 

 red, and yellow, is more enterprising than the 

 black-throated green warbler and nests on the 

 coast. I have not, however, found it to the east- 

 ward of this point, but here it was in full song. 

 On the shore of a lakelike expansion of the 

 river I startled a female red-breasted mergan- 

 ser or sheldrake — the bec-scie of the habitants 

 ■ — from a tangle of spruce and Labrador-tea. 

 Here, about a dozen feet from the water and 

 the same distance above it, was the nest, con- 

 taining eight eggs, warm and well protected in 

 a bed of grayish-black down. Near at hand 

 swam a female black duck with her brood of 

 downy young. 



43 



