244 



Bird -Lore 



and knees with the utmost care, I was unable to see the birds in the act of 

 singing, although I could just make them out as they rose from the ground. 

 The song, while of a similar tone, was absolutely different from the early 

 evening, — softer, somewhat liquid, and was nearly continuous. I judge it was 

 uttered at the mouth of the nesting burrow. The cool night air of the ocean 

 soon drove me again to my blankets, where I slept till the reddening dawn 

 brought the first note of a stirring Tern. But the Petrels were gone, and the 

 islands given over again to the legions of the day. The belief is current among 

 the island residents who live near the Petrels' breeding-grounds that the young 

 birds stay in the ground all winter; and one informant stated to me that he 

 had dug out young in the downy state in November. However that may be, 



A PETREL-HUNTING DOG 



they undoubtedly breed late, as eggs were fresh as found near the middle of 



July. 



In walking over the grass-land of the island, it is almost impossible in many 

 places to step at all without treading into the entrances of the burrows of the 

 Petrels. A most conservative estimate of the number of those birds whose 

 homes are there would be 2,000 or 3,000, and Mr. Harvey, the keeper, who 

 aided me in every way and tendered every courtesy, sets the number at 5,000 

 pairs. The tough, dry turf affords a home safe from ordinary attack at the end 

 of a burrow some six to twelve inches underground, and one to three feet long; 

 but in this individual island lives a small black dog, that "drives dull care 

 away" by digging out and killing an average of perhaps ten Petrels a day 

 throughout the summer season. The red fluid which is ejected from the nostrils 



