SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT 15 



Mount Desert Island, remarkable for the contour, 

 height, and ocean-girdled situation of its rock-built hills, 

 constitutes the most conspicuous coastal feature between 

 the St. Lawrence and the Gulf of Mexico, and as the human 

 traveller, approaching by either sea or land, sights with a 

 thrill of pleasure, from many miles away, its striking peaks, 

 so doubtless our winged wanderers are affected in a manner 

 little different. 



"The tendency," says Forbush, the Massachusetts 

 ornithologist, "of most migratory birds nesting on the eastern 

 third of the continent is to fly southeastward from their nest- 

 ing grounds until they reach the coast and then to follow it 

 southward, guided apparently by prominent landmarks 

 spread along the coast, or to strike out presently across the 

 sea to the Antilles. 



"When the autumn frosts come,?migratory birds from 

 Greenland, from all the shores of Baffins Bay, from Labrador 

 and Newfoundland, from the cultivated lands of eastern 

 Canada and all the wild interior beyond, pour their dimin- 

 ished legions down toward the Maine coast; in the spring- 

 time they return and spread out northward from it. 



"Thus Mount Desert Island, unique in being the only 

 mountainous tract thrust prominently out into the sea, 

 offers an important landmark and admirable resting place 

 for migratory birds of every kind — birds of sea and shore, 

 the useful insect-eating birds of cultivated lands, of woods 

 and gardens, the birds of marsh and meadow lands and 

 inland waters."* 



PHYSICAL CHARACTER 



It is not alone, however, from its favorable geographical 

 situation, or its pre-eminence as a coastal landmark, that 

 Mt. Desert Island possesses the necessary elements for a 

 successful bird sanctuary. The remarkable and varied 

 physical character of the Island constitutes, of itself, a 



*The Unique Island of Mount Desert. National Geographic Magazine 

 1914. 



