®l|p Jmtrnal 



of tljr 



Mmix^ Wnixtlpiaijmi Bamt^ 



Published by the Society on the first of March, June, September and December 



Vol. VII SEPTEMBER, 1905 No. 3 



Matinicus Sea Birds al" tKe Close of the Nesting Season. 



By W. H. Brownson. 



August 22nd Mr. Arthur H. Norton, of Portland, and I sailed 

 from Rockland on the steamer W. G. Butnian for Matinicus, for a 

 hurried observation of the sea birds which there abound, at the very 

 close of the nesting season, when most of the young birds are able 

 to fly and care for themselves. This is the most remarkable bird 

 locality on the coast of Maine, for at no other point can so many 

 birds of so many different species, both native and migrating, be 

 seen at the same time. And it should be remembered that this is 

 a busy fishing harbor, though it is located some eighteen or twenty 

 miles out to sea from the mainland. 



When we were some eight or ten miles from land we began 

 to encounter little flocks of Sea Geese or Jersey Geese. Northern 

 Phalaropes they are properly called and they were now migrating 

 from northern summer homes to spend the winter out at sea, living 

 on the insects and bits of vegetable life to be gathered from floating 

 patches of seaweed. They were swimming gracefully, and as the 

 steamer drew too near would rise without effort and fly to one side, 

 wheeling and twisting near the surface of the water before selecting 

 another place to light. They are handsome at this season of the 

 year, though wearing their winter plumage, which is not so bril- 

 liantly marked as during the breeding time. Queer little wanderers 

 they are, which never come ashore from now until spring, unless 



