A View Across the Hole Showing the Weepeckets in the Distance. Wood 

 Holes in the Foreground. 



The Weepeckets 



Elizabeth Dorothy Wuist, Ph.D. 



Altho of no economic importance, the chain of three small 

 islands off Cape Cod about one-fourth of a mile from Nauschon, 

 one of the Elizabeth Islands, is of interest to bird lovers as the 

 summer home of hundreds of Terns. These little islands are 

 locally known as Weepecket, Wee Weepecket and Wee Wee 

 Weepecket. They vary in size from the largest Weepecket con- 

 taining ten to twelve acres to the least Weepecket with its quarter 

 of an acre of storm-swept sand and rocks. 



To visit these islands it is best to take motor or row boat from 

 Woods Hole, Mass., and the most interesting time to do this is in 

 the early part of July for it is then that the little birds may be seen. 

 The only place on the journey which may offer any difficulty to the 

 motor or row boat is the narrows between Devil's Claw and Red 

 Ledge when a strong head tide is running between six and seven 

 knots an hour, as may be judged by the barrel buoy which tugs 

 at its moorings and rolls up the current before it. This point 

 passed safely and the minor waterway locally known as the "Gut" 

 or "Gutter of Cancer" crossed diagonally, the wider expanse of the 

 Hole is reached. Where the Hole widens into Buzzards Bay, the 

 old bell buoy stands guard and as it rocks to and fro it rings out 

 its warning with a doleful dong-dong. As there is no current out 

 in the Bay no further difficulties may be anticipated. 



Gulls and Terns circle over head, now high, now low, or head in a 

 direct line for the Weepeckets, as if homeward bound from a suc- 

 cessful fishing trip ; others pass on their way back to the harbor to 

 catch the small fry that frequent the quiet waters. Suddenly a 



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