CORMORANT ROCK. PIE 
Still another visitor at the rock during the late spring and sum- 
mer is the Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularia) which occa- 
sionally makes a “ flying trip” off from Sachuest Point and awak- 
ens the stillness of this out of the way spot by its bright, clear 
whistle. It is not thought that these Sandpipers have any definite 
aim in coming to the rock, further than the fact that it makes an 
interesting spot to visit, when they feel vigorous, and like making 
a trip across one mile of intervening ocean. On a visit to the 
rock on the 18th of April, 1899, Mr. Sturtevant was suddenly 
surprised to see a Vesper Sparrow flit past and light on the rock 
only a few feet away. It appeared nervous and not at home, 
moving from place to place on the rock as if worried and unable 
to make up its mind to resume its migratory flight. 
Among the most interesting of the smaller birds that make 
their way here are the Purple Sandpipers (Zyinga maritima) . 
When the winter winds are penetrating and bleak, these little 
fellows will stand motionless upon the cold rock just out of reach 
of the waves, and facing the wind, their backs arched and their 
heads drawn down upon their shoulders, they present a most cold 
and cheerless appearance. At such times they are remarkably 
tame, allowing one to approach within ten feet of them, without 
showing the least alarm. Finally, if one draws too near, they 
will fly off a few feet, or, more often, around to the other side of 
the rock, uttering as they do so their plaintive whistle. 
We have devoted a chapter to this rock as it presents an 
ideal point of observation from which to study maritime avifauna. 
It is difficult to steal into the very environment of sea-birds as 
one can into that of land-birds, but hidden in one of the natural 
crevices of this rock, with the roar of the sea continually in 
one’s ears, and with Stolid Sandpiper and shy Black Duck almost 
within reach,‘one feels an intruder, a traveller, as it were, in a 
foreign land. 
A list of species observed upon the rock or immediately sur- 
rounding it is here given. 
Holboell’s Grebe (Colymbus holbwilit) . 
Horned Grebe (Colymbus auritus). 
Loon (Gavia timber). 
Red-throated Loon (Gavia lumme). 
