Among the Water-Fowl 



On the Fourth of July, the steamer arrived 

 about the middle of the morning, and, bundled up 

 in overcoats and winter clothing, we bade farewell 

 to these wintry but interesting islands, in two days' 

 travel reaching a temperature of one hundred in the 

 shade in sweltering New England, when we wished 

 we were back again ainong the Murres. Our 

 experience tallied with that of the Gloucester fisher- 

 man who remarked that he had experienced three 

 winters in one year — one at the Grand Banks, one 

 in Gloucester, and a third with the summer mack- 

 erel tleet at the Magdalen Islands. 



Better even than the Magdalens for the study of 

 certain of these species that we are considering are 

 some other places that I have visited. As for the 

 Double-crested Cormorants, though I have not as 

 yet been privileged to visit their breeding-grounds 

 on the cliffs of Newfoundland and Labrador, I have 

 become very familiar with a fine colony of them in 

 the West, which I shall describe in another chapter. 

 Regarding the Ravens and Black Guillemots, though 

 they abound in the very far North, I do not know 

 where they can be more easily and safely observed 

 than on our own coast of Maine. Here their 

 Mecca is the islands of Penobscot Bay, and they 

 are accessible without risking: one's life on the 

 terrible cliffs of the northern seas. For want of 

 such cliffs, where a nest is practically safe, the 

 Raven considers a spruce tree amid the thick forests 

 of the lonely islets as the likeliest shelter. Here 



86 



