250 NOTES ON BIRDS PALMER 



2. Fratercula arctica (Linn.)- Puffin. 



I should consider this bird (excepting, perhaps, the hagdons), to be 

 the commonest seen on the cruise. At the Bird Rocks and Bonavent- 

 ure Island they were outnumbered by the gannets, but at the other 

 places visited they were far in the majority. Standing ou Funk Island, 

 during the day, one would think that the screaming, quickly moving 

 Arctic terns were the most abundant, but as evening approaches an ap- 

 parently endless stream of jiuffins, coming from all i^oints of the com- 

 pass for miles around, flock to their breeding grounds in the center of 

 the island, most of them having fish in their bills for the young. Fly- 

 ing in a straight line they would suddenly notice the observer, and, 

 swerving to the right or left, perch in immense numbers upon the bowl- 

 ders and high broken rocks. After a short rest many would fly ofl^" and 

 disappear in the numerous breeding holes which have been excavated 

 by them under the weather-worn and broken rock characteristic of the 

 island. A few fresh eggs were found ; but most of the burrows examined 

 contained young birds only a few days old. At Mingau a few young 

 were flying about, while at Bonaventure they were quite numerous. 



At the Mingan Group these birds breed only on an islet near Mingan 

 or Bald Island, and on the little group of islets to the westward called 

 Perroquet Islands. Here they excavate burrows on the surface, mostly 

 connected by runs from the edges of the cliffs, their excrement and 

 offal causing an immense growth of vegetation, principally the Gcelo- 

 pleurum gmelini, to completely cover the surface to a height of about 

 ten feet. 



From the number of wings seen near an Indian lodge at Mingan it 

 would seem that they do not remain unmolested by man ; but nature is 

 slowly but surely confining their present breeding grounds, and in 

 perhaps less than a century their nesting sites will be forever destroyed 

 by the elements and the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It needs 

 but a glance to show that these islands were very much larger than at 

 present, and the most casual observer will notice that the same forces 

 that reduced them to their present size are still at work. Such, 

 indeed, would seem to be the fate in store for all the islands visited in 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence, their area being constantly reduced and there 

 being abundant evidence that they at one time greatly exceeded their 

 present size. 



3. Cepphus grylle (Linn.). Black Guillemot, 



The old birds were quite abundant at the Magdalen Islands during 

 our stay, but no young were seen. A solitary bird at Funk Island, 

 another in Canada Bay, and several small flocks near Cape Race were 

 the only ones seen on the Newfoundland coast. At Mingan Islands 

 and in Perc6 Harbor the full-fledged young were quite numerous, 

 together with a few old birds moulting their summer iflumage, and 



