THE OSPREY. 



65 



would circle about and often alight on the tent, and 

 after a great deal of scratching slip oft onto the 

 ground where our excited dog killed many of them 



The Horn-billed or Rhinoceros Auks were abundant 

 at the center of the island, occupying the top and 

 both slopes of the mountain, where nearly every tree, 

 bush or boulder was burrowed underneath ; man) 

 other holes were in open spots or under thick bunches 

 of grass. Their single egg is placed on the bare ground 

 at the end of the tunnel which continued from six to 

 twenty feet from the mouth, making many turns at 

 sharp angles. The bur- 

 rows often contained tun- 

 nels branching off that har- 

 bored one of the birds while 

 the mate was in the nest 

 tunnel with the egg. This 

 species, like the Puffin, can 

 inflict a bad wound with 

 their heavy bill, and the 

 utmost care must be used 

 in handling them. My 

 dog has had several bitter 

 experiences with them in 

 this respect. 



The California Guilli- 

 mots and both \'iolet-green 

 and White-crested Cormo- 

 rants nested in rookeries of 

 their own at different 

 places in the cliffs and 

 always on shelves over- 

 hanging the surf, making 

 collecting dangerous in- 

 deed. Not more than one- 

 third of roIiiistKs had the 



white flank patch, and a White-crested ciiiiinutiis was 

 very seldom seen. This is contrary to the described 

 breeding plumages of these birds. 



The only Gulls on the island were Glaucous-winged, 

 and they were very abundant, nesting in all the high 

 rocks along the water's edge. They construct a 

 light nest of grass in the flat places near the top, not 

 very easy of access, but once on top the eggs were 

 readily gathered. Among the peculiarities in eggs I 

 found two sets of gulls' eggs a clear green, one set 

 uniformly so, the other spotted with black, and several 

 runt eggs, exact miniatures of the normal eggs 



"South Island, "as we called it. the home of the 

 Petrels, was reached only after two desperate at- 

 tempts , the first time we were nearly blown to sea 

 and compelled to work our way back against the 

 wind, being unable to land in the heavy surf that was 

 breaking on the shore ; on the next we were only 

 partly successful — we were unable to safely land the 

 canoe, so leaving one of the Indians in it just oft 

 shore, with the other Hiada I got out and started 



NE,STS OF THE GL.MXGUS-WINGED (;ULI 



digging for birds on the hillside. In doing this we 

 were taking great risks, and very soon we were com- 

 pelled to go back to the canoe, as the wind had in- 

 creased and the Indian had difficulty in managing it. 

 So far as we explored the island we found the petrel 

 burrows everywhere in the soft ground, both the 

 Leach's and Fork-tailed species living side by side in 

 their short burrows just under the grass roots. It 

 being my first experience with petrels. I neglected to 

 plug their throats with cotton : as a result when I 

 reached camp I had a lot of greasy, ill-smelling birds 



because of that strong oil 

 which comes from their 

 beaks. The Fork-tailed 

 Petrel is a beautiful species 

 of clear bluish-gray plum- 

 age of satin texture. In size 

 it is somewhat larger than 

 the Leach's. 



The Black Oystercatch- 

 ers made up in voice what 

 they Jacked in numbers. 

 'J he species was scattered 

 about the rocky shores all 

 around the islands, and 

 their shrill calls were heard 

 at every turn ; especially 

 noisy were they when we 

 approached their nesting 

 vicinity. The nest is a 

 strikingly ingenious piece 

 of bird architecture of bits 

 of shells and flat pebbles 

 carefully arranged into a 

 slight depression in the 

 sand. 

 The last two days of the trip were spent on " North 

 Island" with the Ancient Murrelets. We found the 

 birds abundant, and opened many of their deep bur- 

 rows in the black soil, or with a stick forced them 

 out from among the chinks in the rocks. Most of 

 the nests contained nearly full-grown young at this 

 date. Other birds noticed there were Harlequin 

 Duck, Black Turnstone, Wandering Tatler, Bald 

 Eagle, Peale's Falcon, Ra\en, Fish Crow, Russet- 

 backed Thrush, Sootv Song Sparrow, Townsend's 

 Sparrow^ Steller's Jay, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, 

 and a number of W^arbler's and Hummers. 



On the return trip, about fifteen miles from shore, 

 we met a flock of graceful Shearwaters : the only 

 specimen w-e managed to get in the gale that was 

 blowing proved to be Piiffintts grisetts, a. bird quite 

 out of its general range, so far north. They may 

 have been breeding in the localit\ but I think not on 

 the islands we had visited. 



