39 



in which the nest is placed, an old gull's nest, with the addition of a 

 little down, often being made to answer in place of a more elaborate 

 structure. I saw the young, in companies of fifteen or twenty, fol- 

 lowing their parents, in the beginning of August. 



156. Somateria spectabilis. King Eider. Rare. 



157. Erismatura rubida. Ruddy Duck. Uncommon. 



158. Mergus Americanus. Sheldrake. Common. 



159. Mergus serrator. Red-breasted Merganser. It used to breed 

 but has almost entirely left the island during the season of incubation, 

 those remaining being only immature or unproductive birds. 



160. Lophodytes cucullatus. Hooded Merganser. Not common and 



does not breed. 



PELECANID^J. 



161. Pelecanus erythrorhynchus. American Pelican. A specimen was 

 taken some years since. 



SULID^J. 



162. Sula bassana. Gannet. It was once common and used to 

 breed on the "Gannet Rock," but since the lighthouse has been built, 

 the Gannets have left. The only instance in which I found it was near 

 Dark Harbor, on back of Menan, where one solitary individual was 

 sitting like a sentinel on a piece of the wreck of the steamer New 

 England, that had gone to pieces on the Wolf Islands, some days 



before. 



PHALACROCORACID^. 



103. Graculuscarbo. Common Cormorant. Occurs in spring and fall. 



164. Graculus dilophus. Double-crested Cormorant. Occurs, but 

 does not breed now ; probably it did once. 



PROCELLARIID^]. 



165. Procellaria leucorrhoa. Leach's Petrel. Very common and 

 breeds by thousands on the Green and Whitehorse Islands, where the 

 soil is so impregnated with its peculiar odor, that it is quite perceptible 

 some distance to leeward on a windy day. They deposit their single 

 egg about the 8th of June, incubate from four weeks to a month and 

 if robbed will lay three times. Mr. Cheney has assured me that once, 

 while duck shooting on Green Island on November 10, his dog dug 

 out a young petrel still in the down, when all the other summer visi- 

 tors had departed for more southern regions. Though so elegant and 

 graceful a bird on the water, this petrel seems to lose all understand- 

 ing and power on land, and when dug from its hole prefers to skulk 

 away in the grass to taking flight; and may even be thrown like a 

 ball from one person to another. It breeds in such astonishingly 

 large communities that it is nothing of a feat to dig four or five hun- 

 dred eggs in a single day; but the most energetic oologist would 

 scarcely undertake a second day's work, as the first would have worn 



