BLANC SABLON 



my former study of tree-rings on the Labrador 

 coast assures me that many of these trees must 

 be much over a hundred years old and may 

 in some cases date back even to Cartier — is 

 a difficult task, but one finds here a habitat in 

 which forest plants are surely at home. 



There was so much of interest in my journey 

 inland on the first afternoon that I wandered 

 less than a mile, but I had a most exciting or- 

 nithological experience, namely, the discovery 

 of song sparrows. As far as I know, the only 

 previous record by any one for the song sparrow 

 in the whole Labrador Peninsula is at Lake 

 Misstassini, and I have always had a lurking 

 suspicion, probably erroneous, that there was 

 a possibility of error in that record. Certainly 

 there were no song sparrows along the coast we 

 had traversed. Audubon did not find them and 

 no observer has recorded them. There are only 

 a very few records for Newfoundland. Cape 

 Breton and the Magdalen Islands are generally 

 supposed to be the northern limit on the eastern 

 coast, yet here in this valley at Blanc Sablon I 

 was startled by hearing the familiar song and 

 soon saw several birds that were plainly song 

 sparrows. It was interesting to find in the same 

 S59 



