TOWNSEND AND ALLEN: LABRADOR BIRDS. 
279 
raphy and faunal areas of Labrador, followed by an ornithological 
history, including an account of the expeditions of the ornithologists 
who have visited Labrador, and of the destruction of bird life and eggs 
there, and lastly an annotated list of the birds of this region as well as 
a bibliography. 
Many of the ornithological records for Labrador are imperfect and 
of doubtful value and we have often found considerable difficulty in 
deciding on their merits. It is therefore possible that some of the 
species that are condemned to the doubtful or erroneous list (in small 
type) may be worthy of a higher position, and that some of the species 
in the regular list do not deserve that honor. We have, however, 
presented all the evidence we can find in all cases, so that readers can 
draw their own conclusions. 
We have considered in all 259 species and subspecies, two of 
which are now extinct. Of the remainder we have put 44 species in 
the doubtful or erroneous list, leaving 213 species and subspecies 
whose status for Labrador we have considered certain. Of these, 
however, some 15 are of accidental occurrence only. The nomen¬ 
clature and order followed, are those of the Check-List of the American 
ornithologists’ union as corrected up to 1906, except in the case of 
the Horned Owl. Here we have adopted the name given by H. C. 
Oberholser. 
Topography. 
Geography .— Labrador is a peninsula on the northeast coast of 
North America lying north of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Its eastern 
coast, washed by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic current, 
is some seven hundred miles in length, extending from Cape Charles 
at the entrance to the Straits of Belle Isle in north latitude 52°, north- 
northwest to Cape Chidley in latitude 60° 30'. On the north the 
peninsula is bounded by Hudson Strait and its offshoot, Ungava Bay. 
From Cape Chidley at the eastern to Cape Wolstenholme at the 
western extremity of this boundary the distance in a straight line, 
which runs about west-northwest, is nearly five hundred miles. The 
actual coast line is nearly twice as long. The western boundary 
is formed by the shores of Hudson Bay, and its prolongation south¬ 
ward into James Bay. This boundary runs nearly north and south for 
about eight hundred miles. The southern boundary is arbitrary, 
• but is generally taken, and is so considered in this paper, as a line 
