36 



JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The largest breeding colony in this 

 vicinity is one of some three hundred or 

 four hundred pair of birds which nest 

 along the sea-wall of Little Duck Island. 

 About a dozen pair frequent the Larger 

 Green Island and probably breed, though 

 I have never taken eggs there. Forty 

 or fifty breed on Mason's, eight or ten 

 on Black, and thirty odd pair on Spirit 

 Ledges. Seal Island is rather near their 

 western breeding limit, and I have never 

 found over eight or ten pair there. A 

 few stray individuals are occasionally 

 seen around the Spoon Islands but it is 

 doubtful if they nest there. 



Being a very social species, the Pig- 

 eons are often seen in flocks of a dozen 

 to a hundred or more, perched on the 

 rocks under which are their nests, or 

 riding lightly through the surf and over 

 the bounding waves which dash madly 

 against their sea-girt homes. 



As far as I have been able to ascer- 

 tain by examination of numerous stom- 

 achs, their food consists very largely of 

 small mu&sels, swallowed shell and all, 

 while other species of small moUusks 

 and surface swimming crustaceans are 

 also devoured. 



Being excellent divers, the Pigeons 

 can easily reach the bottom, and often 

 have I watched them dipping in the surf 

 or just lieyond and coming to the surface 

 with their honestly earned meal. They 

 usually feed in flocks, during the breed- 

 ing season at least. 



They rise from the water with a great 

 flapping of wings, and after spattering 

 along the surface for some distance they 

 get up into the air and fly with quick 

 wing strokes for a greater or lesser dis- 

 tance, usually in a somewhat circular 

 course, and finally fall into the water 

 with a splash. 



When shot at they seem to prefer to 

 seek refuge by diving, usually coming 

 up at some unexpected place to rise 

 quickly as possible into the air or again 

 seek the bosom of Neptune. 



About the first week in June they 

 begin to think of reproduction. Nest 

 building does not occupy a great deal of 

 their time. The eggs are always well 

 hidden, either being deposited on the 

 bare ledge under some huge boulder, or 

 in a slight hollow in the gravel under a 

 pile of smaller rocks near the shore of 

 the island. Quite often the nests are 

 lined with mussel shells which are 

 always as far as I have observed 

 placed with the inner pearly surface up- 

 ward . 



A few sets must be complete by the 

 first week in June, as I have found 

 newly hatched young by June twentieth, 

 but the larger part of the eggs are unin- 

 cubated on June fifteenth. Two eggs 

 is a normal set, but occasionally only 

 one is laid. Their color is either a faint 

 bluish white or buffy white, spotted and 

 blotched with black, brown and lilac 

 brown, the blotches being largest at the 

 larger end of the egg where they are 

 often confluent. The eggs are the 

 handsomest laid by any of our sea fowl. 

 A set of one taken on Little Duck Island, 

 June 20, 1896, measures 2.27x1.54 

 and incubation was one-half complete. 

 Another set of two measures 2.25 x 1 .54, 

 2.25 X 1.55. 



The parents take turns in incubating 

 and the one on the nest usually suffers 

 itself to be caught and handled without 

 showing fight. Birds which have been 

 incubating some time usually have two 

 bare spots, one on each side of the 

 breast, where the feathers seem to have 

 been intentionally removed so as to 



