Vol. XVIII 

 igoi 



\ DuTCHER, Protection of Gulls and Terns. QQ 



be seen flying about the light and could be heard uttering their 

 peculiar cry which sounded very much like " Johnnie-put-your- 

 jacket-on." While passing from one building to another with a 

 lantern in her hand large numbers of the petrels would be 

 attracted, some coming so close as to strike her with their wings. 



In Penobscot Bay there are four small colonies of gulls. The 

 largest of these numbers about two hundred pairs and is located 

 on Heron Island. This colony shows evidences of having been 

 disturbed a great deal in the past, as the birds were very wild. 

 About half of the nests were built in trees, which were all low, 

 flat-topped spruces. The writer visited the colony July 2 and 

 found only a few nests containing young birds ; while at Great 

 Duck Island seven days later all the young were hatched. 

 There is no doubt but that the birds on Heron Island had been 

 robbed of all of the eggs first laid. Evidences of eggs having 

 been used for throwing at a mark were visible, or else they had 

 been broken to compel a fresh laying. While on this island a 

 curious instance of bird psychology was noticed. A photograph 

 of very young birds was desired but it was impossible to find 

 young birds of any size in ground nests. If, after they were 

 found, they were replaced by hand in the nest they would imme- 

 diately leave it and run to hide. Three very young birds were 

 then carefully removed from a tree nest and placed in a ground 

 nest, where they remained perfectly quiet during the time that 

 it took to set up a camera, focus, and expose two plates, after 

 which they were returned to their tree home. These young birds 

 were certainly governed in their actions by a change of habit 

 caused by the ancestors for some generations back, having 

 changed from ground nesting to tree nesting. The old birds 

 when on the breeding grounds, have four different notes, the 

 most common being a loud kak-kak-kak; another was a deeper^ 

 two-note call ; still another was a note almost like the /loiik of a 

 Wild Goose, while still another resembled in some degree the 

 whistle of a Red-tailed Hawk. The young birds uttered a low 

 weak squeal. 



The other colonies are located on Spirit and Black Horse 

 Ledges and Little Spoon Island, and are all small ones, there 

 being not over fifty or seventy-five pairs of birds on each of the 



