1884.] Recent Literature. 1015 
Lawrence, At all hours of the day, in every kind of weather, 
late into the brief summer, its voice rises among the evergreen 
woods, filling the air with quivering, delicious melody, which at 
length dies softly, mingling with the soughing of the wind in the 
spruces, or drowned by the muffled roar of the surf beating 
against neighboring cliffs. To my ear the prominent characteris- 
tic of its voice is richness. It expresses careless joy and exultant 
masculine vigor rather than delicate shades of sentiment, and on 
this account is perhaps of a lower order than the pure, passion- 
less hymn of the hermit thrush; but it is such a fervent, sensu- 
ous and withal perfectly-rounded carol that it affects the ear much 
as sweetmeats do the palate, and for the moment renders all other 
bird music dull and uninteresting by comparison.” 
he ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), long known as an inhabi- 
tant of Labrador, was not met with, but Mr. Brewster “ obtained 
some information affecting its northern range, which, if true, is 
important.” He was told by several witnesses, whose trust- 
Worthiness is not called in question, that the species occurs, 
though sparingly, as far north as Hudson straits. 
Ahe greater yellow-legs (Totanus melanoleucus) was found 
breeding in numbers at Fox and Ellis bays, Anticosti, and about 
the mouth of the Mingan river. Concerning its actions on the 
breeding grounds, Mr. Brewster remarks: “ Previous to the 
experience just related, I had supposed myself well acquainted 
with these birds, but I am free to confess that when I first met 
them at Anticosti I had to shoot several before I could believe 
lat they were really greater yellow-legs. Not only were their 
flight and action; peculiar, but all their notes differed from any 
had ever heard them produce. In addition to the cry 
already described, they uttered a rolling pheu-pheu-phé, pheu-pheu- 
phé, repeated a dozen times or more in quick succession ; a mel- 
low pheu, heu, pheu, resembling the whistle of the fish-hawk, and 
a soft, hollow hoo, whoo, whoo, very like the cooing of a dove. 
€ latter note was given only when the bird perched on the top 
of some tall spruce, a habit by no means uncommon here, but one 
bn I think has never been previously reported for this 
les,” 
Mr. Brewster says of the famous gannet rookery at Bird 
rocks: “In 1860 the number of gannets breeding on the top of 
there were some fifty nests at the northern end which had 
gered.” a few days before and about which the birds still lin- 
