JOURNAL OF iMAINR ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



30 



covered with a profuse coating" of down. 

 They are probably able to Hy iu about 

 five or six weeks from the time when 

 hatched. 



As one app; caches iheir breeding 

 place the Gulls may be se'en like so 

 many marble inmges, perchtd on I'ocky 

 eminences and trees or cuddled down on 

 their nests. As the intruder ncars them 

 they rise almost simultaneously and 

 circle overhead, rising higher and higher 

 and uttering long dra^vn cries of "cua, 

 cua, cua" and varying them by "ha, ha, 

 ha" and "ca, ca, ca" which sounds like 

 croaking laughter. 



The Indians from Bar Harbor form- 

 erly used to visit the breeding places iu 

 order to shoot these birds to obtain their 

 breasts, but of late years they are so 

 wary that it is hard to get within gun 

 shot of them and the visits of "Lo" 

 have ceased. 



If the bleeding places could be pro- 

 tected aud the egg robbing stopped, 

 there would be no great danger of the 

 exterminaiion of the Gulls along our 

 coast. 



Theii- food consists largely of small 

 fish, though sea-urchins, mussels and 

 other marine animals, and the slops 

 throvvn ovei'board from passing vessels 

 are also devoured. The Gulls share 

 with the Crows the trick of taking sea- 

 urchins or mussels in their bills and 

 dropping them on rocks so as to crack 

 the shells and enable them to reach the 

 inmates thereof. 



They are very good swimmers and I 

 have often seen individuals floating ou 

 the water with their heads turned back- 

 wards and tucked into the wing coverts, 

 seemingly asleep in the sunshine and lit- 

 erally "rocked in the cradle of the deep." 



Tiieir breeding places are at present 

 the most outer and inaccessible of our 



islands coastwise, though a fcAv colonic s 



nest on the larger lakes of the interior. 



Common Tern. Sterna hiriindo Linn. 



This is by far the commonest of the 

 JNIedricKs in this section. Ship, Barge 

 and Trumpet Islands are by all means 

 the great breeding places of these birds 

 in East Penobscot waters. The Terns 

 always breed on low grassy islands, and 

 here they have exactly the home that 

 suits them. Seemingly theie must be at 

 least five hundred pair of these birds 

 nesting on these four islands. 



Three hundred pair of these call 

 Tj'umpct Island their home, and about 

 one hundred and fifty breed on Ship 

 Island, aud about twenty-five pair on 

 each of the r>arges. Some ten or twelve 

 pair breed ou the Green Islands; some 

 thirty pair on Saddleback Ledge, and 

 an equal number on Halibut Ledge. 

 Eight or ten pair sometimes breed on 

 Little Spoon Island, and one or two 

 pair ou Lower Mark Island, but they are 

 not always to be found there. 



Their nests are mere hollows in the 

 dirt, wholly unlined or sometimes lined 

 wMth a few speais of dry grass, and I 

 have found one quite elaborate structure 

 of dry grass which would hold together 

 and bear transportation. This was 

 found on Saddleback' Ledge, August 

 19th, ISDC), and contained two eggs. 

 The Terns were still laying at this late 

 date, owing to the constant robberies 

 perpetrated on them by the fishermen. 

 These eggs measured 1.61 x 1.18 and 

 1.62 X 1.17. Eggs ou the point of 

 hatching, newly hatched young, and 

 young in all stages up to full fledged 

 were observed on various islands at this 

 late date. 



Normally the birds have eggs by the 

 last week in May, and I have seen newly 

 hatched young as eaily as the fifteenth 



