AMONG THE WaTER-FowL 
fall flight, like the Golden Plover, most of the 
Phalaropes, after leaving Nova Scotia, pass so far off 
the coast that we seldom encounter the main body 
of the migration. 
The only species described in this chapter with 
whose breeding habits I am, or am likely to be, 
familiar, .1s Leach’s. Petrel; Whe nesting. of amess 
Shearwaters is practically unknown to science, and 
upon that of the Jaegers, except in northern 
Europe, only arctic explorers can enlighten us. 
But many of the islands off Maine and Nova 
Scotia have been adopted by multitudes of Leach’s 
Petrel as their summer home. At different times, 
from Matinicus to the Magdalen Islands, I have 
examined their rat-like burrows. Seal Island, off 
southern Nova Scotia, is a wonderful Petrel-resort. 
There I have noticed a variation on their usual 
habit, in that they enter the spruce woods, and dig 
their burrows under the roots of the trees. It is 
about the last place in the world that one would 
naturally search for a bird that loves a free, wander- 
ing life over the billows,—a damp, dark hole under- 
ground, and in the midst of a forest. But these 
extremes in habits make bird-study all the more 
fascinating. 
A more typical breeding-place is some such spot 
as another Seal Island,—this one off the coast of 
Maine. I was, with a friend, at Matinicus Island. 
Learning of this remarkable resort of the Petrels, 
only seven miles away, we engaged a schooner to 
carry us there, leave us for the day, and take us off 
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