170 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The following incident during an easterly June storm at Ipswich is 

 described in The Birds of Essex County (1905) : 



The surf was breaking on the shallow beach as far out as one could see 

 through the blinding rain and spray, but these birds, with wings set, would glide 

 into the teeth of the A^ind and bound from wave to wave as if on springs, seem- 

 ing of their feet on the waves. Ever and anon they would wheel about like 

 ment only of their wings w'as at times to be noticed, and an occasional patter- 

 the wall of foam steadily gliding and bounding to windward. A slight move- 

 ing every now and then to be overwhelmed in the surf, but appearing beyond 

 large swallows, flying to leeward, to turn again and glide and bound into the 

 wind. Once or twice they flew for a moment over the beach itself, actually 

 drifting past me on the shore side, as I stood in the water at the edge of the surf. 



Mr. John Treadwell Nichols, who has studied extensively wide 

 ranging oceanic birds, contributes the following: 



Though sometimes found in large numbers where conditions ai*e favorable or 

 food is abundant they are not truly gregarious, and over wide stretches of 

 ocean are usually met with singly or two or three together. Sailors generally 

 believe that they do not rest on the water, but in calm weather the writer has 

 occasionally seen numbers of them sitting on the surface like miniature gulls. 



Though vai-ying greatly in abundance, Wilson petrel is generally numerous 

 close inshore oif New York through the summer months. It regularly passes 

 the Narrows and comes into New York Upper Day, and occasionally one or two 

 may be seen on the South Bay, Long Island. It probably is molting at this 

 season, as on June 30, 1913, when the species was unusually abundant, flying 

 rapidly about over the ocean off Mastic, Long Island, the nearer ones so far 

 from shore as just to be seen readily with the naked eye, many of their feathers 

 were scattered along the line of wash on the beach, particularly primaries, 

 though others (including some tail feathers) were also found. * * * On this 

 date it was estimated that from a point on the crest of the dunes at least 1,000 

 Wilson petrels were Avithin binocular range at one time. 



Capt. Herbert L. Spinney (1903) has recorded a diving habit in 

 these birds seen near Seguin Island, Maine. He says : " They were 

 feeding on the wash of the bait from a fisherman's hook, and were 

 noticed a number of times to plunge beneath the surface of the water 

 for the food they were after." 



The following observations on tlie habits of this species made by 

 Doctor Pickering in 1838, published by Cassin (1858) , are of interest : 



A storm petrel taken, which proved to be Thalasskhoma wilsonii; and, al- 

 though this species and others of its genus have been constantly seen during the 

 voyage of the expedition, this is the first specimen that has been captured with- 

 out having been injured, thus affording whatever facilities can be obtained on 

 shipboard for observing its manners. 



I was leather surprised to observe that this bird v.as not only entirely in- 

 capable of perching, but even of standing upright like birds in general, and as 

 I have seen birds of this genus represented, unless by the aid of its wings. In 

 standing, or rather, sitting, the whole of the tarsus (commonly mistaken for 

 the leg), rests on the ground, and it walks in the same awkward position, fre- 

 quently obliged to balance itself with its wings. With a more powerful exer- 

 tion of its wings, however, it was enabled to run along on its toes, in the same 

 manner that it does over the surface of the water. The absence of a hind toe. 



