LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS, 149 



heaA'ily grassed portion of the island once or twice, the thought occurred to 

 us that there might be petrels there. Judge of our surprise, however, when we 

 found the vegetable mold a perfect labyrinth of burrows. So light was the 

 accumulation in density (once the growing blades were penetrated) and so 

 abundant the birds that one had only to dig with the hands dog fashion 

 and birds' eggs and young were the invariable result. The whole half acre 

 of grass proper was a seething mass of petrels. Yet from all that host not 

 a sound to betray their presence. The sun shone calmly and the breeze breathed 

 benignly. Nothing disturbed the serenity of the day save the restless quaverings 

 of the always hostile gulls. There was nothing to indicate that beneath our 

 feet lay a buried city, not once populous and now deserted, but now teeming 

 with life, a city of storm waifs, gathered from an expanse of a thousand 

 watery leagues, a city perhaps more populous than any other colony of the 

 class Aves within the limits of Washington, sitting silent where the eye 

 saw only waving grass. The promise of the situation so wrought upon us 

 all that we determined to return at evening some time later, and did so on 

 the Monday evening following, July 23d. We arrived a little after 9 o'clock, 

 provided with matches, bedding, and water, prepared to spend the night. We 

 found the island still silent ; but we used the remaining moments of twilight 

 to determine the limits of the colony. At about 10 o'clock the first note was 

 sounded — from the ground. In quality like a tiny cockerell, in accent like a 

 glib paroquet, came the cry Pettereteretterell, etteretteretterell. The second 

 phrase is slightly fainter than the first, and is therefore just suggestively an 

 echo of it. After ten minutes, or such a matter, one sounded in the air. By 

 and by came another and another. And so the matter grew until by 11 p. m. the 

 air was aflutter with sable wings, and the island ahum with t's and r's and I's. 

 This hour may be taken as being as typical as any, although the pace was more 

 furious at 1 o'clock, when we roused for another observation. We had spread 

 our blankets in the center of the grass field, regretful of the fact that the 

 portion of the population under us must needs go supperless for that night. 

 Perhaps, therefore, it was our presence which stirred the birds to unusual 

 demonstrativeness, but I am not at all certain that this was the case, or that 

 our presence affected the situation in the slightest degree. 



The air was full at all times of circling birds, at least several hundred, 

 probably several thousand. They flew about excitedly, much more nimbly 

 than in daytime, but still erratically, incessantly clashing wings with their 

 fellows, and now and then knocking each other down into the grass. Those 

 which flew about uttered from time to time the characteristic cry, but those 

 awing were but a small proportion of the total number in evidence. The 

 grass swarmed with birds working their way down through to the burrows, or 

 else struggling out, all giving from time to time the rolling cackle which is 

 the accompaniment of activity, while from the ground itself came an attendant 

 chorus of cries. Taken altogether there were thousands, perhaps tens of 

 thousands, of birds in motion, and the total effect of the rustling and the 

 cackling (or crowing) was a dainty uproar of large proportions, a never-to-be- 

 forgotten babel of strange sounds. And in this fairy tumult not the least ele- 

 ment was the peeping and whining of the chicks, both tended and untended. 

 The characteristic cry is as given above, but it was frequently abbreviated to 

 Petteretterell, etteretterell. This was the only sound heard save a rolling cry 

 rendered staccato in r's and I's, and coming apparently from birds standing 

 at the mouth of the burrows. The note is instantly suggestive of the name 

 and if the notes of other petrels resemble this one, I should unhesitatingly say 

 that the name is imitative, and that the classical explanation of " Little Peter 

 walking upon the waves " is ingenious but improbable. 

 83969—22 11 



