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856 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
The feet appear very short and stout; the tarsi with but seven scutell, rather 
longer than the middle toe and claw; the lateral claws about equal, and extending 
to a little beyond the base of the middle claw; the fourth quill is longest, the 
third about equal the fifth, the second considerably longer than the sixth, the first 
about equal to the eighth primary. 
Length, about twenty-four or twenty-five inches; extent, fifty to fifty-one; wing, 
about seventeen; tail, ten. Tail moderately graduated; the outer about one and 
sixty one-hundredths to one and ninety one-hundredths of an inch less than the 
middle. 
HIS bird is an extremely rare resident in New England. 
I have never heard of its breeding here; but it occa- 
sionally rears its young on the island of Grand Menan, 
off the north-east coast of 
Maine. ‘There, on the steep 
and almost inaccessible cliffs, 
its nest is built. This is com- 
posed of twigs, sticks, seaweed, 
and pieces of turf, and is lined 
with the finer seaweeds and 
alge found on the seacoast. 
A nest that I found in Ohio 
was built on a jutting rock in 
a large cave. On ascending 
to it, I found that it was built 
of coarse sticks and twigs, and 
was lined with leaves, strips 
of bark, and pieces of moss. 
This nest had been occupied — so a settler told me—for a 
number of years, by the same pair of birds, who made the 
cave and its surrounding forest their permanent home 
through the year. 
From its protected situation, it required but few altera- 
tions and additions each year; and many of the sticks of 
which it was composed were quite rotten and decayed. 
It contained five young, about half-grown. As this was 
on the 18th of March, I judged the eggs must have been 
laid by the 20th of February. 
The eggs of this species are generally four or five in 
