22 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



twenty feet farther inland from where we made these pictures were 

 several Petralaburrows; these birds we found to be very tardy in their 

 incubating, for of a dozen nests examined, in none had a single egg 

 hatched. In an''old dead stump standing almost directly over the 

 Guillemot' nest'^was the nest of a pair of Tree Swallows and one or 

 the other of the old birds was nearly always on guard on one of the 

 smaller limbs. He was very tame and allowed us to stand directly 

 under him 'about four feet away. 



The next day we took a dory and rowed over to Little Duck Island a 

 mile away. It was early in the morning and the fog had not lifted so 

 we could see or be seen but a short distance. As we rowed with as 

 little noise as possible, we surprised a number of the Guillemot in the 

 water and were within a boat's length of them before fhey knew of our 

 approach. They would leave the water with a noisy splash caused by 

 their wings and feet striking the water at the same time and after two 

 or three steps on the surface they would launch themselves safely in 

 the air. 



We found the number of these birds on the smaller island to be larger 

 than on the Great Duck and it was no uncommon sight to see from a 

 dozen to in one case nearly a hundred lined up in a row on the rocks. 

 If we had had more time to devote to the Guillemots on this island it is 

 probable that we could have unearthed a few nests for some of them 

 undoubtedly nested under some of the scattering rocks back of the 

 tangled mass at high water line. 



A few of the birds already showed signs of moulting, some individ- 

 uals having white feathers mixed in with the black while the wings 

 were very worn and shabby, and in a few weeks more some of them 

 would probably have been in their winter dress of gray and white. 



By the latter part of October they begin to leave the vicinity of the 

 nesting island and in flocks of a few individuals spend the winter 

 roaming along the coast as far south as Long Island. Very few know 

 them by their name of Guillemot and we were unable to find out if any 

 were on the island by inquiring for them by that name but ask if there 

 are any "Sea Pigeons" about and you will get the information that 

 you wish. All three kinds of the Guillemots are known throughout 

 their whole ranges by this same name. They all have the same nesting 

 habits placing their eggs underneath or behind boulders or in crevices 

 where they are more or less dillticult to get at. A small number of 

 ■Pigeon Guillemots breed on the Farallone Islands but they do not nest 

 in any great number except north of the United States coast. They 

 lay two or very rarely three eggs having a ground color varying from 

 grayish white to greenish white, handsomely marked with brown and 

 black. 



