Birds the Ungava Peninsula

B I R D S T H E U N G AVA P E N I N S U LA BY FRANCIS HARPER Biological gati ons in this region in 1953 were supported by the Arcti c Insti tute of North America ( under contractu al arrangements with the Office of N aval Research ) and by the Research and Devel o ment Divi io i of The S r o p s n , Off ce u ge n l a tm f G a D e t o the Arm . The ener , ep r n y results have been prepared for publi cation under a grant from the National S cience Foundati on. Reproduction in whole or in part is per mitted for any purpose of the Uni ted States Gove rnment . U N I V E R S I T Y O F K A N S A S L A W R E N C E K A N S A S ' S NFV LJ UNIVE RSITY OF KANSAS — Mc llaneous Publication No . 1 7 . 1 1 71 6 ls . 26 i s . is e , pp , p , fg Pu lis hed October 15 1958 b , b W M Means of publi cation were suppli ed by the John Simon Guggenheim M emorial Foundation C O N T E N T S INTRODUCTI ON Previous ornithological investigations in the central portion of the Ungava Peninsula Investigations in 1953 Physiography and vegetation C in t and hanges climate , faunal dis ribution, life zones Comparative abundance of bird species French and Montagnais names of birds Names of plants Summation of distributional records - Zonal distribution of land and fresh water birds breeding in the Ungava Peninsula Nomenclature, measurements , weights , plumages , color terms Acknowledgments ACCOUNTS OF SPECIES INDEX INTRODUCTI ON A more precise title for this report would have been Birds of the n l C Ungava Pe insu a, Particularly of Its entral and Southern Por ” tions . The shorter expression has been adopted as a friendly ges ur - i t t e toward hard work ng librarians , bibliographers , and o hers n z oo o i engaged in servi g l g cal interests . The Ungava Peninsula is bounded on the west by Hudson and James bays , on the north by Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay, on the St east by the Atlantic Ocean , and on the south in part by the . Law r rence ( River and Gulf ) . Whether or not the southweste n limits of n the peninsula have ever been authoritatively defi ed, they are set approximately, for the purpose of the present paper, at the Saguenay t n and Not away rivers . Thus the peni sula may be said to comprise, Labrador about — in addition to Newfoundland f three quarters of the Province of Quebec . The maximum length ( Cape Wolstenholme to the mouth of the Saguenay ) and maximum width ( Cape Jones to Cape Charles ) of the peninsula appear each to be approximately miles . This territory is roughly equivalent to that of all of the United States east of the Mississippi River, with the exception of i t New England , Michigan , and Wisconsin . Owing to the d fficul y of i access to the interior except by plane , this port on of the peninsula nk distribu has been , until recent years , a nearly bla space on the — tional maps of plant and animal species an all but unknown land re re to biologists in general . For them , it may be said to have p i sented almost the last great fronti er on the continent . The rresistible 1953 . attraction of such a region lured me into it in The completion , in the following year, of a railway from Seven Islands to Knob Lake - ur r inaug ated a distinct new era of indust ialization , with far reach ing consequences . Previous ornithological investigations in the central portion of the Ungava Pe nins ula Henry Connolly was a figure of some importance in the e arly years , although he has been quite overlooked by such chroniclers as Townsend and Allen ( 1907 ) and Austin Apparently he was the first man to supply bird specimens from the far interior . The United States National Museum still possesses , after nearly a cen i Nasco ie Petitsi tury, some of his sk ns that were taken at Fort p on . n n 1 1850 kapau Lake Jour als that he kept at this post from Ju e , , to ’ ’ u 12 1 53 8 C . Jly , , are in the Hudson s Bay ompany s archives His ER OF AN E . I . UNIV SITY K SAS FU LS , MUS NAT . H ST n R pri cipal station, however, was evidently at igolet on Hamilton Inlet . His contributions to the Smithsonian Institution extended 1857 1 from to about 874 . I had hoped that there might be some ’ illuminating bits of information about this Hudson s Bay Company th e h i has officer among the Baird letters at Smit sonian, but noth ng been found . Most of the early records there were destroyed in a C fire in There is , however, some information about onnolly to be gleaned from various pages in the Annual Reports of the miths onia n Ins titution : 79 1862 z 71 S , as follows ; ; 53 59 86 108 47 , ; , ; ; ( For these references I am much indebted to Mrs . Austin H. C lark . ) ’ Connolly s contributi ons consisted in large part of meteorological 1 1 records . But from at least 863 to 866 there is acknowledgment of hi 1863 Labrador birds and eggs received from him . The s pment in “ m embraced speci ens of the rare Labrador falcon , and others of n he Annual Re o or 1877 1 5 10 . t rt . 0 9 much i terest In p f ( pp , ) there m is a List of the more i portant explorations and expeditions , the collections of whi ch have constituted the principal sources of supply th to e National Museum . Th e name of Henry Connolly holds an honorable place in that list . r Through the good offices of Joseph Ewan , the following fu ther information concerning this pioneer Labrador naturalist has been ’ m R A. Co received from . Reynolds , Secretary of the Hudson s Bay L . Mr. pany in ondon , to whom I make grateful acknowledgment 12 tu litt . Reynolds writes to Professor Ewan ( , January , “According to our records Henry Connolly was a son of Chief ‘ ’ He Factor William Connolly and was born in the Indian Country . entered the service of the Hudson’ s Bay Company in 1838 as an He Apprentice Postmaster and rose to the position of Factor . 1 retired in 877 . C C Mr. Reynolds also sends a note on onnolly, hief Factor at Esquimaux Bay Hamilton Inlet, that is , Rigolet! , from an “ i unknown source, although he suggests that the original is l kely to be found in the records of the Missions of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Quebec . This note is in the form of a letter from the e Reverend Pere Arnaud , Oblat de Marie, to his superiors . It is dat d A 6 1871 Riviére Nasko is ugust , , at des p “ ’ Mr. C le en d envo er onnolly, bourgeois charge, eut la bonté y e re u deux hommes a notre recontre . J o s chez lui la plus cordiale . e ce u hospitalité Jvoyais bon monsieur po r la premiere fois , mais HARPER : BIRDS OF THE UNGAVA PENmSULA ’ ’ quel homme aimable et prévenantl D ailleurs ce n est pas un étran - - . vos r ger pour nous Peut etre, dans voyages avez vous recont e - il r a i - quelques uns de ses parents ; a une soeu la Riv ere Rouge, chez - C . t au les Soeurs de la harité Lui meme, apres avoir fait ses é udes C r au Com ollege de Montréal, est ent é tout jeune service de la ni 11 s a Vie n a pag e . a passé la plus grand partie de da s les pays s uv ages ; mais il a trouvé le moyen de perfectionner ses connaissances ; ’ il i l histoire t et a a étud é la botanique, la minéralogie, na urelle , , ’ l ama ili il i b té . toutes ces connaissances , jo nt las plus grande ’ The date ( 1862 or 1863 ) of th e Smithsonian s first receipt of C ornithological specimens from onnolly is perhaps significant . For it was in 1860 that the youthful Elli ott Goues arrived at Rigolet as a ’ x in . member of a summer s e pedi tion to Labrador charge of JW . t Dodge . His mission was to procure for the Smithsonian Insti ution im specimens of birds and their nests and eggs . As he h self remarks “ 1861 z 215 ( ) , A few days were spent at Rigolet, a station of the C C sic . Hudson Bay ompany, in charge of Henry onolly [ ! , Esq from whom were received some valuable meteorological statistics . What would have been more natural for Goues th an to instruct the Hudson ’s Bay Company man in the preparati on of bird specimens? Perhaps this was the spark that fired Connolly’s zeal for sending ornithological material to the Smithsonian in the following years . A C ’ i fter onnolly s t me, a much more considerable knowledge of P. i the avifauna resul ted from the labors of A. Low In addit on to his primary work of geological reconnaissance in several seasons in ’ ’ the 1880 s 1890 s and , he kept a record of the birds observed and he eventually publi shed ( 1896 ) a briefly ann otated list of 81 species .

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