6o JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



observation if it had not been alarmed by the near approach of Mr. 

 Norton. Then the camera was set up and the little Gull was photo- 

 graphed, in a nest, by the side of an egg. It posed to perfection 

 and it is to hoped that the negative will do it justice. On this island 

 it appears that a few Sea Pigeons, more properly called Black 

 Guillemots, are nesting, while the burrows of Leach's Petrel are 

 plentiful. 



We now weighed anchor and proceeded to Eastern Egg Rock, 

 where we landed a little later. On this island there are no Laugh- 

 ing Gulls, but the place is occupied by a great colony of Terns, 

 probably a thousand or more in all. These are both Common 

 Terns and Arctic Terns, the two species differing so slightly that it 

 takes a practiced eye to distinguish, without error, the slightl}^ 

 smaller body and longer tail of the Arctic Tern. Boys have evi- 

 dently visited this colony, for we found several piles of a dozen or 

 twenty eggs on the rocks, where they had apparently been collected 

 for the amusement of the thing. The birds, young and old, flew 

 about over our heads while we staid, but their breeding was so far 

 advanced that there were no fresh eggs or young birds to worry 

 the soaring flock, so they made comparatively little protest at our 

 presence. Here we saw a dozen or so of the handsome little Sea 

 Pigeons, jet black, except for a white wing patch. We found no 

 nests, but the adult birds were constantly coming to the island with 

 fish in their mouths, to feed their young, which were hidden away 

 in the crevices among the boulders. The swift flight of the Sea 

 Pigeons, a few inches from the surface of the water, was graceful in 

 the extreme, while the birds made a pretty figure as they alighted 

 in the water near their nests. They are expert divers and fishers. 



On the Eastern Egg Rock there is an abundance of nests of 

 Leach's Petrel, burrowed deep under rotten logs or surface rocks. 

 These Petrels are sooty-black Birds, no larger than Robins, marked 

 conspicuously by a white patch at the roots of the tail. They lay 

 white eggs in the deep holes which they dig, and during the time of 

 incubation the males and females alternate on the nest. Food is 

 sought far out at sea and after twilight has fallen the air is filled 



