i6 



THE MUSEUM. 



it was here that I found more nests 

 than all those which I observed else- 

 where. On the shore of this island are 

 a great many crevices among the rocks, 

 which form the nesting places of this 

 bird. I found two nests not more than 

 a foot apart, and each nest had its bird 

 sitting on an egg. This would have 

 made a fine picture for * 'The Museum, " 

 but unfortunatel}- I had left my camera 

 at the house. 



The eggs are laid on the bare ground 

 unless anything is handy with which to 

 line the nest. The bird never lays 

 more than one egg at a setting and has 

 several settings each season. The eggs 

 are chalky white, thickly spotted with 

 chocolate-brown becoming more dense 

 at the larger end and often presenting 

 a smeared appearance. In some spec- 

 imens the color varies from a reddish 

 brown to purplish chocolate, but the 

 predominating color is chocolate-brown. 

 The average measurement is about 

 2.23 .\ 1.53 in. The measurements of 

 three specimens are as follows: 2.24 

 X 1.50, 2.19X 1.54, 2.26 X 1-53 in. re- 

 spectively. The first was found at the 

 entrance to the Shark's Hole, along 

 the shores of Harrington Sound, in a 

 hole in the rocks about five feet from 

 the water. The second was found on 

 Trunk Island, in Harrington Sound, in 

 a crevice in the rocks. There was 

 nothing in the nest for lining except a 

 few feathers of the old birds. The 

 third was also found on Trunk Island 

 under a pile of large rocks which had 

 fallen down and formed a place for a 

 nest. This was lined with some weeds 

 and a few feathers. The birds lay at 

 least two eggs in a season and probab- 

 ly more as there were a great many 

 young and a few eggs examined when 



we made our visit to the islands, which 

 was very late in the season. 



The birds are very reluctant in 

 leaving the nest, in fact the\' will not 

 leave until removed by hand. I tried 

 to get one old bird off the nest by pok- 

 ing her with a stick, but \\ ithjout avail. 

 They are not very nice things to han- 

 dle, especially if they can get a chance 

 to use their sharp serrated bills. I used 

 a hand net which I threw over their 

 heads, and getting them tangled in the 

 net, managed to remove them from 

 their nests. The young are gray in 

 color, in fact they are gray all over, 

 feet and bill, and present a striking ap- 

 pearance, looking not unlike balls of 

 cotton. One of the members of our 

 party and myself tried to get a photo- 

 graph of two youngsters, but they were 

 so young and unshapely that when the 

 picture came out they had very little re- 

 semblance to any thing except a bundle 

 of cotton. 



Both the male and female have two 

 long tail feathers, but in every speci- 

 men which I saw there was only one 

 which I suppose was due to moulting. 

 The birds have a graceful airy flight 

 and fly very low at times nearly touch- 

 ing the water. While my trip to the 

 Islands was rather late in the season 

 for collecting, I managed to get a few 

 specimens of birds and eggs. The 

 Bermudian government, I believe, im- 

 poses a fine of 5/" on the offender for 

 each bird killed. 



B. l^UCKliXHAM, 



Chestnut Hill, 



Phi la., Pa. 



December number will contain a 

 fine illustrated article on Pacific Coast 

 Starfishes. Don't miss it. 



