39 



in wliicli the nest is placed, an old gull's nest, with the addition of a 

 little down, often being made to answer in place of a more elaborate 

 structure. I saw the j-oung, in companies of fifteen or twenty, fol- 

 lowing their parents, in the beginning of August. 

 15G. Somaterin spf-rtahilis. King Eider. Kare. 



157. Erismaturn ruhida. Ruddy Duck. Uncommon. 



158. Mcrnus Amcricanus. Slieldraivc. Connnon. 



159. ?I(r(/iis serrntur. Hed-breasted Merganser. It used to breed 

 but has almost entirely left the island during the season of incubation, 

 those remaining being only immature or unproductive birds. 



1()0. Lophodi/tis CKCuUa'.nx. Hooded Merganser. Not common and 



does not breed. 



PEIiECAIflD^. 



IGl. Pelecaiuiseri/throrJiynrhus. American Pelican. A specimen was 



taken some years since. 



SUTiID-aS. 



1G2. Siiln bafisana. Gannet. It was once common and used to 



breed on the "Gannet Rock," but since the liglithouse has been built. 



the Gannets have left. The only instance in which I found it was near 



Dark Harbor, on back of Menan, where one solitary individual was 



sitting like a sentinel on a piece of tlie wreck of the steamer New 



England, that had gone lo pieces on the Wolf Inlands, souie days 



befjre. 



PHALACROCORACID^. 



1(53. Graadvti carho. Common Cormorant. Occurs in spring and f.ill. 

 164. Grdciihis dilophns. Double-crested Cormorant. Occurs, but 

 does not breed now ; probably it did once. 



PROCELLARUD^. 



1C5. Procellaria leucorrhoa. Leach's Petrel. Very common and 

 breeds by thousands on the Green and Whitchorse Islands, where the 

 soil is so impregnated with its peculiar odor, tliat it is quite perceptible 

 some distance to leewai'd on a windy day. They deposit their single 

 egg about the 8th of June, incuuate from four weeks to a month and 

 if robbed will lay three times. Mr. Cheney has assured me that once, 

 while duck shooting on Green Island on Novemi)er 10, his dog dug 

 out a young petrel still in the down, when all the other summer visi- 

 tors had departed for more southern regions. Though so elegant and 

 graceful a bird on the water, this petrel seems to lose all understand- 

 ing and power on land, and when dug from its hole prefers to skulk 

 away in the grass to taking tliyiu : and may even be thrown like a 

 ball from one person to auolinr. It breeds in such astonishingly 

 large communities that it is nothing of a feat to dig four or five hun- 

 dred eggs in a single day; but the most energetic oologist would 

 scarcely undertake a second day's work, as the first would have worn 



