200 
General Notes. 
r Auk 
|_ April 
length, with one exception, from 2.50 to 2.60 inches, and in breadth from 
1.70 to 1 . 80 . In color they were almost exactly like some eggs of the 
Bittern that I had just taken, with a little more of an olive tinge. None 
of the books give this species as nesting in eastern North America, so 
perhaps this is the first known instance. As in the case of the Lesser 
Scaup, it would appear to be a late breeder. Only a few rods away, on 
another ‘ nubble,’ were nests and eggs of a belated Dusky Duck, and of a 
habitually late-breeding Red-breasted Merganser. I also found a nest of 
the Blue-winged Teal on June 16 , the young alive in the shell. 
The Bittern, the Horned Grebe and the Rusty Grackle breed abundantly 
in the swamps and ponds near East Point. Of the first I found one nest 
with six eggs, the books giving five as the maximum. At the time of our 
arrival the young Rusty Crackles had just left the nests. These are very 
similar to nests of the Robin, and are built low down in the spruces, 
usually near the ends of thick boughs. I found this species only near East 
Point, in clumps of spruces on wet ground by the ponds. Piping and 
Ring-necked Plover were breeding abundantly on the long sand-bar be- 
tween Grand Entry and Grindstone, but were almost wholly absent at 
East Point. 
The stay on Bird Rock was fascinating beyond compare, amid the 
whirring multitudes of sea-birds. One morning we rowed over to and 
climbed North Bird, inspecting the Gannet colony on top. For the sake 
of the cause of bird-protection, I will here say that I was witness to the 
landing of a party of fishermen on Great Bird, after they had taken 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 -p.t ??- Zoo- 
Birds of Toronto, Ontario. 
By James H. Fleming. 
Pt.I, 7/ater Birds. 
Auli, XXIII, Oct., 1906, 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. 
