1918] 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



25 



that the majority of the juveniles remain out at 

 sea until maturity and only the breeding adults 

 come in to them in the nestmg season, accompanied 

 by a few juveniles that can be regarded more or 

 less as accidentals. 



Many pages could be covered with the results of 

 the study of these birds on their nesting ledges. It 

 is to be noticed that through the day all birds have 

 the bill closed, while flash-lights at night show them 

 with mouths wide open. A night visit to the cliff 

 well repays the trouble. The continual chorus of 

 haish voices is subdued and there is little movement 



hauntingly by. It is strongest in the vicinity of 

 certain cracks in the ground and the clefts under 

 large s'ones scattered about the level. Weird voices 

 are heard in the air and soft black shapes sweep by. 

 They are Leach's Petrels, and the not unpleasant 

 cdor proceeds from them. They nest in cavities 

 in the ground where they spend the day and are only 

 seen over land at night. Then they sweep around 

 beating up and down the aisles of the spruce clumps 

 or over the grassy meadows and the night is filled 

 with them and their little low, weird song. 



Such is the great bird colony of Bonaventure 



A Family 



on the ledges. However, there always seems to be 

 a few uneasy spirits abroad even at night. Occas- 

 ionally one returns and, in the darkness against the 

 glow of the sea, glides across the view like a 

 pale ghost. Where it alights, off in the darkness, 

 there is an awakened chorus of voices and then 

 silence comes again. From the sea in front come 

 soft questioning mu-u-u-r-i-'s of the Murres taking 

 their young off to sea before they are fledged, for 

 none linger in the neighbourhood of the rocks once 

 they take to the water. A sweetish pungency, 

 different from the sharp reek of the ledges, wafts 



Groupe. 



Island. During cur visits in 1914 and 1915, we esti- 

 mated that there were in the neighbourhood of about 

 eight thousand birds there. Economically they are 

 of no importance either way. No one thinks of 

 eating them, and they probably would be less than 

 indifferent for this purpose. Their food is fish, 

 mostly herring, though other fish of similar size and 

 squid are taken. Their effect on the fisheries is 

 nil. When herring are caught by the boat load 

 expressly for fertilizer, or their eggs are shovelled 

 up from windrows on the beach for the same pur- 

 pose, the inroads these birds can make in the 



