1907] Notes on Some Seal Island Birds 93 



NOTES ON SOME SEAL ISLAND (YARMOUTH CO., N.S.) 



BIRDS. 



By H. F. Tufts. 



Seal Island, situated some fifteen miles off the southwest 

 coast of Nova Scotia about mid-way between Yarmouth on 

 the north and Cape Sable on the south, is perhaps the most 

 interesting from an ornithologist's viewpoint of the many- 

 islands which fringe the coast. 



While some four miles long and from one half to one mile 

 wide, the island is mostly low, in no place exceeding 30 or 40 

 feet above the sea. A sand beach on the east side near its middle, 

 extends with the sweep of the storms nearly across 

 the island, forming a lagoon and marsh, where it 

 backs against the ridge of granite boulders and beach stones, 

 which forms its western wall. From this low area the land 

 graduallv rises toward the north and soiith to the extreme ends. 

 These portions are covered with a peaty, reddish-colored soil, 

 supporting a dense growth of dwarf spruces and firs, in places 

 so closel}^ grown together as to be almost impenetrable. Under 

 foot is a fine carpet of velvety green moss. On the south end is 

 situated the government Hght station and fog-horn, in charge 

 of Mr. John Crowell, who is also owner of the island. 



This is one of the very few islands about Nova Scotia upon 

 which various sea birds still attempt to nest and rear their young. 

 From other islands the birds have been driven by the relentless 

 persecution of the fishermen, who systematically rob them of 

 their eggs or shoot without regard to season. 



On Seal Island, however, thanks to the untiring efforts 

 of Mr. Crowell and his family, the birds are in a measure protected 

 from wanton destruction. 



The most numerous and conspicuous of the birds are the 

 herring gulls. Here we find them by thousands, perched about 

 on the spruce tree tops, scattered about the rocky shores or 

 winging their way over the surrounding waters in quest of food 

 always drawing attention by their beautiful forms and plum.age 

 and noisy voices. Their nests are scattered about the ground, 

 both in the woods and amid the stumps of the recent clearings, 

 or on the beach a slight hollow into which grass and moss is 

 scraped and the two or three eggs desposited therein. Many 

 nests are built in the flat tops of the dense stunted spruces, 

 bulky affairs of sticks, sea- weed and moss crow style. These 

 gulls prove helpful allies to the fishermen, indicating the where- 

 abouts of shoals of fish, about which they gather in excited, 

 eager swarms. 



