BULLETIN 



OF THE 



Michigan Ornithological Club 



Published Quarterly in ti£e Interests of Ornithology 



IN THE Great Lake Region. 



Vol. V. SEPTEMBER, 1904. No. 3. 



BIRDS OF THE BEAVER ISLANDS, MICHIGAN. 



WALTER B. BARROWS^ F. A. 0. U. 



The Beaver Island group consist of nine islands which occupy an irregu- 

 larly oval space some thirty miles by twenty in northern Lake Michigan, 

 the nearest point to the mainland being the eastern shore of Big Beaver 

 island which is about eighteen and a half miles directly west of Cross Vil- 

 lage, Emmet Co., Mich. The islands, however, belong to Charlevoix County. 

 Big Beaver, the largest of the group, is about thirteen miles long from north 

 to south and about six and a quarter miles east and west at its widest part. 

 Near its extreme northern end lies its only harbor, on which is situated the 

 thriving little town of St. James, with its lumber mill, stores, church, school. 

 and numerous dwelling houses. The northern third of the island is sandy 

 and rather barren, much of it being pastured with cattle and sheep, so that 

 there are extensive sandy plains, in some places completely grassed over or 

 coated with reindeer moss, but often thickly sprinkled with the circular 

 patches of the ground-cedar or juniper {Juniperns communis), and with 

 white and yellow pines here and there. In the hollows and along the shore 

 there is a denser growth of evergreens among which the balsam spruce pre- 

 dominates, though white cedar (arbor-vitae), white pine, and tamarack also 

 occur. There are several dense tamarack swamps within a mile or two of 

 St. James, and a beautiful little lake half a mile or more in diameter (Font 

 Lake) gives an added picturesqueness to the place. 



The middle and southern parts of the island contain some good agricul- 

 tural land, part of which is occupied by prosperous farms. The larger part, 

 however, is still covered with timber, mainly beech, maple, hemlock, balsam, 

 white cedar and tamarack., I spent most of two days in studying the birds 

 of this island, and most of the land-birds noted were observed here. My 

 observations, however, were confined to the northern third of the island and 

 it is probable that many other species would have been found in the large 

 stretches of hardwood further to the south. I found neither gulls nor 

 terns nesting on this island. 



Three other islands are large enough to support good farmsj and two 



