Notes from the Magdalen Islands. — I had the pleasure the past season, 
with Mr. C. S. Day, of spending three weeks at the Magdalen Islands. 
We devoted most of the time to Coffin Island and East Point, as being 
least known, arriving there on June 12. For four days we were isolated 
from the world at the wonderful Bird Rocks. The following are a few of 
the more noteworthy of many observations. 
On June 13 Mr. Day was so fortunate as to flush a Least Sandpiper 
(Trmgaminut^ 'lla) from her nest with four half-incubated eggs. The 
nest was a mere hollow in the ‘ barrens,’ just back from the edge of a 
slough, among sparse growth of coarse grass and moss, the structural 
part consisting of simply a few dry bayberry leaves. The eggs were of a 
light grayish buff, marked rather sparsely, except at the crown, where 
there was a thick mass of spots and blotches. The markings were of a 
rich dark brown, verging on blackish at the crown, with occasional sub- 
dued lilac. In size they varied only from 1.18 to 1.20 inches in length, 
and from .82 to .88 in breadth. The owners were both present, and so 
exceedingly tame that I photographed one of them upon the nest. The 
love song is beautiful, a mellow twittering, emitted as the bird circles 
about. I met the species several times, and it is considered by the fish- 
ermen a regular and frequent breeder. 
The same is their opinion regarding both the Scaup Ducks. I saw 
Scaups occasionally, and finally discovered a nest of the Greater Scaup 
(Aythya marila uearctica) with nine eggs, June 29, on a small island in 
“ the Great Pond,” flushing the female at very close quarters. The nest 
was a bed of down in the grass, the eggs fresh and notably larger than 
the many of the Lesser Scaup I have found in the West, ranging in 
mnunig 01 a pany 01 iisuermen on vjreaioiru, alter Lney nau taaen every- 
thing on North Bird that they could reach or shoot, who fired raking 
shots again and again into the masses of birds upon their nests, mowing 
them down like grass, to leave them there dead or dying, — a most horri- 
ble and pathetic sight. Will not our committee on bird-protection, the 
Audubon Society, and individual friends of the birds, use their influence 
to induce the Canadian authorities to forbid or restrict the looting of the 
Bird Rocks, and make the keeper of the light a warden? 
In all I noted 65 species on the islands, 52 of these, at least, undoubtedly 
breeding. Curiously, staying mostly about East Point, I failed to find a 
number of the small land-birds that others have reported, but, as I had 
hoped, this was counterbalanced by the water-birds. Comparing my 
list with those of Cory, Brewster, Bishop, and Young, I have three species 
not recorded by them: — Barn Swallow, Mourning Warbler, and Glaucous 
Gull. The first of these is now common, and perhaps has come in there 
quite recently. 
Five more species 'seem to be unrecorded in the breeding-season 
(June), namely, Bonaparte’s Gull, Eider, Lesser Yellow-legs, Saw-whet 
Owl, and Tree Swallow. Of these last only the Saw-whet was proved 
to breed, by my finding a dead fledgling in a Flicker’s hole. Fishermen 
declared that the Bonaparte’s Gull breeds, but all I saw were in immature 
plumage. — Herbert K. Job, Kent, Conn. 
Auk, XVIII, April., 1901, p 
Birds of Toronto, Ontario. 
By James H. Fleming. 
Pt.I, Water Birds. 
Auk, XXIII, Oct., 1905, p.449. 
90 . Actodromas minutilla. Least Sandpiper. — Abundant migrant, 
May 4 to 20 ; the adults return during the first half of July (July 4 , 1891 ) 
and the young from August 10 to 24 . Mr. Nash has records from June 28 
to July 19 , and to the middle of September. 
