62 JOURNAL OF MAINK ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



or "Coots" will furnish sport for many gunners in Casco bay. Yet 

 they are not very good eating, and probabl)'- not half these birds 

 shot ever reach the table. They fly so swiftly that it is not easy to 

 kill them, hence the expert marksman finds them a target much to 

 his liking. 



The last island we visited was Shark Rock, three or four miles 

 farther eastward. The afternoon was drawing to a close and we 

 had a wet run in a freshening breeze. At Shark Rock we found it 

 out of the question to land, both because the sea was rough and be- 

 cause the sun was low in the western sky. A colony of Terns was 

 living here, for we saw them in considerable numbers over the high 

 cliffs and roosting among the grass- grown slopes. We could not 

 stop for further investigation, so Skipper Parsons set his sail and 

 soon we were scooting through the water before the wind, at a rate 

 •which made the gasoline motor of no use at all. Returning to Port- 

 land the next day on the Mineola, we encountered a southerly gale, 

 which kicked up a great sea and forced some of us to part with our 

 dinners in a hurried fashion, often to the discomfort of those near 

 us, as well as to ourselves. But we were repaid for our bits of 

 suffering by being accompanied for several miles by a little flock of 

 Petrels (probabl}^ Wilson's), which skimmed the frothy wav^es with 

 a perfection of easy motion. 



Two Thousand Common Terns in Bluff Island 



Colony. 



By W. H. Brown SON. 



The great colony of Common Terns on Bluff Island, a few 

 miles off Old Orchard, is much larger than it was last year at this 

 time. It was estimated then that there were upwards of a thousand 

 birds living there ; now it is certain that the colony numbers at 

 least two thousand, including both old and 3'oung. It was early in 

 the morning when Mr. Arthur H.. Norton and I arrived at the 

 island, in a motor boat from Portland. As soon as we drew near 



