256 NOTES ON BIRDS PALMER. 



In No. 5 the eggs were deposited in a living, tangled mass of chick- 

 weed about 6 inches high, the plants within a circle of 5 inches being 

 dead, with the eggs in the center, thus forming the uest. 



No. 6 contained three eggs and was really more nest like than the 

 others, being composed of dead grass, apparently well arranged, with a 

 depression in which the eggs were deposited. This uest was taken on 

 Penguin Island, and is composed of dead grass made into a hummock 

 by mice {Arvicola riparia), which are very abundant on the island. 

 The tern had simply appropriated the place, and scratching the top had 

 soon formed the nest. 



No. 7 is merely the top of a bunch of dry grass found along shore 

 and adopted by the bird as a suitable nesting site. 



Of the many nests examined two contained three eggs each; in one 

 case two were incubated and the other perfectly fresh. Many nests 

 contained a young bird and an egg nearly ready to hatch. 



In no other species of bird with whose breeding habits I am familiar 

 has nature been so prodigal of life as in the case of the young terns on 

 Funk Island. The surface of the granite rock of the island has been 

 corroded by time and the elements to such a degree that many shallow 

 depressions have been rotted, as it were. These have been tilled with 

 water by the abundant raiu, and prove veritable death-trai)s to the 

 young terns. Many of them leave the nest when a few days old and 

 wander about. Numbers are thus lost among the rocks and drowned 

 while trying to get back to their parents. This explanation' seems to 

 me to account for the numbers of dead young found in the pools. In 

 fact, I rescued a number in places from whence there was no escape for 

 them except through several inches of water. There were two colors 

 of the young, which had no relation whatever to the sex, and were about 

 equal in abundance. In perhaps half of the instances both colors were 

 found in the same nests, aud not intrequently they were of different 

 sizes. 



16. PufSnus major Faber. Greater Shearwater ; Hagdou. 



Met with in immense numbers off the entire southeastern coast of 

 Newfoundland, and less numerous on the northeast coast and through 

 the Straits of Belle Isle, nearly to the Mingan Islands, also sparingly 

 along the 'Nova Scoti i coast while going north, and from Canso to 

 Nantucket on our return. Between Cape Pines and St. John we saw 

 thousands, nearly all of which were sitting on the water in flocks of from 

 fifty to a hundred. In the Eeport of the Fish Commission for 1S83, 

 Capt. J. W.Collins, in a paper on the habits of this species, states that 

 for a few days after their arrival at their destination in spring they 

 congregate in flocks and remain for several days in apparent inactivity, 

 without feeding. At such times they can not be enticed within range 

 of a gun or baited hook. We tried in various ways to decoy them to 

 the vessel, but without success ; nor would they allow us to approach 



