TOWNSEND AND ALLEN: LABRADOR BIRDS. 
285 
surface of the country is treeless, woods being only found about the 
margins of small lakes and in the valleys of the rivers. Trees also 
decrease in size until, on the southern shores of Ungava Bay, they 
disappear'altogether. The Leaf River, which empties into the bay 
a few miles north of the mouth of the Ivoksoak River, is the northern 
limit of forest trees on the west side of Ungava Bay. Along the east 
coast of Hudson Bay, Dr. Bell found trees growing a few miles beyond 
the north end of Richmond Gulf.So that a line drawn a little 
south of west, from the mouth of the Leaf River to the mouth of the 
Nastapoka River on Hudson Bay, would give a close approximation 
to the northern tree limit [and thus to the Hudsonian zone] of western 
Labrador” (Low, ’ 96 , p. 31). In eastern Labrador, Low states 
that the tree line “skirts the southern shore of Ungava Bay and comes 
close to the mouth of the George River, from which it turns south- 
southeast, skirting the western foothills ” of the treeless Atlantic 
coast range, southward at a short distance from the coast, until at the 
latitude of Battle Harbor, small trees are found in sheltered places 
at a distance of a mile or less from the open sea. 
There are comparatively few species of birds in the stunted growth 
at the upper edge of the Hudsonian zone. Most characteristic, how¬ 
ever, is the White-crowned Sparrow which is everywhere common 
in the small trees and continues to be met with as the trees diminish 
in size and abundance even until they finally become mere scattered 
clumps or islands reaching into the lower edge of the Arctic zone. 
Thus the outpost colonies of one or more pairs of these birds were 
often found in barren situations where a few small dwarfed clumps 
of fir and spruce gave a little shelter. Such birds of course found 
it necessary to extend their feeding grounds into the surrounding 
Arctic zone, and it seemed evident that at the upper limit of their 
range they should be considered as inhabitants of that area, although 
clearly invaders from the Hudsonian zone. In common with the 
White-crowned Spamnvs, the Tree Sparrows also inhabit the stunted 
growth at the upper edge of the Hudsonian area which they appear 
to choose in preference to the thickets of taller trees in less exposed 
situations. 
The more extensive tracts of small trees up to fifteen feet in height 
are the home of numerous other characteristic Hudsonian birds. 
White-winged Crossbills in small flocks pass occasionally overhead, 
or make a brief pause among the tops of the evergreens; Redpolls 
