BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. I I I 



"gurry " that are inseparable from this pursuit. They are very tame, pattering 

 over the waves and picking up morsels of food close to the boat. They are 

 sometimes caught with hook and line and I have a bird in my collection that 

 may have been caught in this way. It was picked up dead on Ipswich Beach, 

 was well nourished but had a slit at one corner of the mouth as if a hook had 

 been cut out. Another in my collection was found floating at Magnolia near 

 the shore with no signs of violence. When winged and caught, they vomit 

 quantities of ill-smelling fish oil, and their stomachs, — large flabby pouches, — 

 always contain it. Besides the oil I have found a few small stones and bits of 

 charcoal. The odor of the Petrel, even of old specimens in collections, is 

 distinctive. 



It is rare that one finds them so close to the land as actually to fly over it, 

 but this happened in my observation once during a severe easterly rain-storm at 

 Ipswich, on June 21st, 1903. The surf was breaking on the shallow beach as 

 far out as one could see through the blinding rain and spray, but these birds 

 with wings set, would glide into the teeth of the wind and bound from wave to 

 wave as if on springs, seeming every now and then to be overwhelmed in the 

 surf, but appearing beyond the wall of foam steadily gliding and bounding 

 to windward. A slight movement only of their wings was at times to be 

 noticed, and an occasional pattering of their feet on the waves. Ever and anon 

 they would wheel about like large swallows, flying to leeward, to turn again and 

 glide and bound into the wind. Once or twice they flew for a moment over the 

 beach itself, actually drifting past me on the shore side, as I stood in the water 

 at the edge of the surf. 



In calm weather they occasionally settle down on the water the better to 

 pick up food. As they surround a fishing boat, especially if bits of fish-liver 

 are thrown out to them, they can be observed closely. They hop at times on 

 the water with the use of the wings, keeping the feet together and pattering 

 lightly on the surface. At other times they appear to run along on the waves, 

 using the feet alternately, but supporting themselves by their wings. When 

 the Petrels are feeding excitedly on the bits of liver they emit a gentle peeping 

 note. I have seen them startled from the water at night, wheel around the 

 vessel wildly, high up, and disappear in the darkness astern. 



In flight, the feet can be seen to project beyond the tail, and this is a 

 capital diagnostic point, for the feet of the Leach's Petrel do not reach to the 

 end of the tail, or even to the apex of the fork. After noticing this in the 

 living bird I found it was a marked distinction in the skins. The average 

 length of the tarsi of two Leach's Petrels in my collection is 0.84 of an inch, of 

 the tibiae 0.95, a total length of 1.79 inches. The average length of the tarsi of 

 four specimens of Wilson's Petrels is 1.28, and of the tibia? 1.44 inches, a total 



