THE MUSEUM. 



15 



a single white egg, with seldom any 

 other marks excepting perhaps a few 

 obsolete scrawls or spots, and a gener- 

 al bluish or brownish tint upon the 

 otherwise white shell. 



My notes, add a few remarks which 

 may be of interest; "A great trick of 

 the Labradorians is to get a greenhorn 

 to stick his hand into one of these 

 burrows of the bird when the bird is 

 supposed to be within. If you exam- 

 ine carefully the bill — of horn, nearly 

 two inches in length and about the 

 same in height — you will see that a 

 most alarming pair of forceps may be 

 thus put into motion, and, as the bird 

 is one of the fiercest of its kind, can 

 readily imagine why the \-ictim never 

 repeats the experiment. 



The number of birds that I saw on 

 Greenly Island was simply immense, 

 and could never have been counted. 

 I have often seen the water covered 

 with a clustered flock, all engaged in 

 making the hoarse, rasping sound that 

 has been mentioned before, and is not 

 unlike the filing of a saw, that is made 

 by both the Auks, and which gives all 

 alike the name of "gudds." When on 

 the wing I seldon if ever saw them 

 mix with other birds. Though they 

 appear in large numbers at stated times, 

 they disappear or rather disperse after 

 breeding almost as suddenly as they 

 came; yet stragglers do not leave until 

 the harbors are nearly if . not quite 

 blocked with ice. 



At Greenly Island, although there is 

 a large fish canning establishment, 

 houses, and a lighthouse on the North- 

 east end, these birds occupy the other 

 side unmolested and are seldom inter- 

 fered with by gunners; yet the island, 



is scarcely three-quarters of a mile long 

 and even less than half a mile wide. 



The flight of the Puffin is as swift as 

 an arrow. It has no notes that I could 

 percieve. Then in the water it is oblig- 

 ed to rush over the surface some feet, 

 flapping its wings and apparently pad- 

 dling vigorously before it can gain suffi- 

 cient impetus to take flight. When 

 sitting sentinel-like on some rocks, pre- 

 vious to taking a downard plunge into 

 the air to wing, it reminds one greatly 

 of pictures of Auks and Penguins, which 

 birds they greatly resemble in many re- 

 spects. We found the breasts of this 

 bird when made into a soup and boiled 

 thoroughly not bad eating, though 

 much tougher than were the Auks we 

 tried. 



The Nesting Habits of the YelJow- 

 billed Tropic Bird. 



The Yellow-billed Tropic Bird 

 (PliaetJion flavii-ostris) better known 

 to the Bermudians as the Boatswain 

 Bird, is an abundant representative of 

 the Bermudian Avifauna. My first ac- 

 quaintance with this bird was on Au- 

 gust 2d, 1894. When about 10 miles 

 from Bermuda I was greeted by a pair 

 of Tropic Birds flying over the steamer 

 uttering their peculiar cries. 



The Boatswain Bird, I was informed 

 by Mr. Hayward, lighthouse-keeper at 

 St. David's, arrives in the Burmudas 

 about the latter part of March and re- 

 mains until about the 25th of August, 

 when they gradually disappear. Al- 

 though distributed all around the is- 

 lands, I know of no place where they 

 are more abundant than on the islands 

 in Harrington Sound. 



Trunk Island, of comparatively small 

 area, seems to be a favorite resort, a$. 



