22 THE AUDUBON: BULGE DIN 
BOOK REVIEWS 
BIRDS OF THE LABRADOR PENINSULA, by W. E. Clyde Todd. Uni- 
versity of Toronto Press, Toronto 5, Ontario, Canada. 819 plus xiv pages, 
with nine color plates and numerous halftones and black-and-white maps. 
Dec. 1963. $18.00. 
The size and scope of this volume indicate that it is truly a life work, 
and the result of an incredibly long career in ornithology, for Mr. Todd 
first joined the Bureau of Biological Survey in 1891. He became Curator 
of Ornithology at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh in 1899, serving until 
1945, when he became Curator Emeritus, a position he still holds. This 
text covers 25 expeditions sponsored by the Carnegie Museum between 
1901 and 1958. Most of these were undertaken by Todd himself, but the 
last two were apparently led by Roland C. Clement of the National 
Audubon Society. 
If the book is huge (8/2 x 11% inches), so is the area it encompasses, 
for Mr. Todd presents a distributional list of all species collected and 
observed in the peninsula that extends from Newfoundland and the 
Labrador coast on the east to Hudson’s Bay, James Bay, and the Missinaibi 
river in northern Ontario on the west; from Hudson Strait on the north 
to the St. Lawrence river and Quebec city on the south. The book is based 
not only upon Mr. Todd’s extensive travels into and along this vast area, 
but also upon the accounts and collections of ornithologists and explorers 
who have visited there before and since. 
As the author admits, much of the book could have been written 
thirty years ago, but the addition of much valuable data since Mr. Todd 
stopped paddling and portaging through the wilderness has served to make 
the distributional list much more authoritative and complete. No less than 
5,375 birds were collected on the Carnegie expeditions, and some 22 new 
forms of birds are described from the Labrador Peninsula, of which seven 
were contributed by the author. In his travels, he enjoyed the company 
of some well-known naturalists and ornithologists, including Olaus J. 
Murie and George Miksch Sutton. If I have any criticism of this book, 
it is that there are only eight color plates by Sutton, and some of these 
show birds in juvenal plumage only. 
However, the liberal use of distributional maps for many of the species 
makes up in part for the lack of color illustrations. The fold-out map of 
Labrador showing the routes of the various expeditions is essential for 
understanding of the text; again, this map should have been larger and 
more detailed. The pictures give some indication of the wild, bleak terrain 
and the primitive means of travel (largely by canoe) which the autho 
used. Modern air travel, and the opening up of this wilderness in recent 
years by mineral and wood pulp companies (to say nothing of the radai 
warning outposts) have changed the entire aspect of Labrador. In ter 
years, it should be possible to write a much more complete list, one whick 
may reflect the effects of possible changes from a terrain inhabited only 
by Eskimos, Indian tribes, and trappers to a land ponulated by white mer 
with their civilized habitations. 
I found this book immensely appealing because my own travels int 
the Quetico wilderness have taken me across waters that empty into Jame: 
Bay, where Mr. Todd traveled and collected so extensively. The first fifty 
or so pages of his book give an account of the various expeditions, and > 
