Notes on Some Labrador Birds

As a part of the enforcement of the Migratory Birds Convention Act by the Department of the Interior, Dominion of Canada, I visited the southern coast of the Labrador peninsula during the summer of 1921, travelling from the extreme western end of that coast to Blanc Sablon, on the Straits of Belle Isle, inspecting and protecting the sea-bird colonies, and overseeing the work of the Dominion Bird Officers stationed throughout the region. Certain of the observations made on this journey appear to be sufficiently valuable to be worthy of record. My itinerary was as follows: Leaving Quebec by the steamer "North Shore" on June 3, I entered Labrador, at the "point where the fiftieth parallel of latitude strikes the coast a short distance to the west of the Bay of Seven Islands" (TownsendS), on the afternoon of June 4. I debarked at Mingan on June 6. Leaving there on June 13, I travelled, chiefly in small motorboats, and with frequent delays, to Blanc Sablon, on the eastern boundary of the Dominion of Canada, where I arrived on July 12. I returned in a motorboat as far as Harrington, sailed from Harrington on the steamer Aranmore on July 28, passed the southwestern boundary of Labrador on the night of July 29, and debarked at Quebec on July 31. The fact of chief importance brought out by the observations ß made is that the breeding sea-birds of this coast are markedly more numerous than recent literature on the subject would lead one to suppose. Not only has there been a noticeable increase in their numbers in the past few years, due to the protection given them in Canada and the United States by the Migratory Birds Convention, but the unanimous testimony of the residents of the Labrador coast is to the effect that, in spite of the awful