May, 1920] 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



87 



NOTES ON THE SUMMER BIRDS OF THE GASPE PENINSULA. 



By Charles W. Townsend, M.D., Boston. 



(Continued from Vcl. XXXIV, page 80.) 



The adults on alighting near their half grown 

 young empty their stomach contents on the ground 

 and the young eagerly swallow it. The young 

 may often be seen practicing short flights on the 

 top of the Rock, but when they once launch out from 

 their nesting place they roost on the broken rock 

 and beaches at the foot of the cliffs. 



9. Larus Philadelphia. Bonaparte's Gull. 



On August 14th I saw two adults and four 

 immature birds of this species in the Gaspc 

 Basin, evidently migrants. 



10. Sterna hirundo. Common Tern. 



The only birds of this species I saw anywhere 

 along the coast of the Peninsula were about 

 a dozen at Cross Point on July 5th. Mr. 

 Taverner does not note them. 



1 1 . H^drochelidon nigra surinamensis. Black Tern. 



One seen August 27th in the lower part of the 

 York River near Gaspe. 



12. Oceanodroma leucorhoa. Leach's Petrel. 



Breeding commonly in the clefts and holes in 

 the top of the Gannet cliffs at Bonaventure 

 Island. 



13. Sula bassana. Gannet. 



As already stated about 8,000 Gannets breed 



in the cliffs on the eastern side of Bonaventure 



Island. The great majority of the birds seen 



were in full adult plumage ; about one in three 



or four hundred had black in the base of the 



wing, in the tail and scattered over the back. 



These, I suppose, are birds two years old. 



Early in July nearly all the eggs had hatched, 



but I watched an adult on July 18th which was 



brooding an egg in the nest. When the bird raised 



itself I saw that one webbed foot nearly covered 



the egg. This singular habit has been noted in 



literature. 



From time to time adults could be seen bringing 

 rockweed in their bills and patching up their nests. 

 The nests like the ledges were painted white with 

 the droppings of the birds. The white downy 

 young with black faces grew rapidly between the 

 time of my first visit on July 10th and my last on 

 August 3rd when they were nearly half as large as 

 their parents. 



The curious courtship ritual I have described at 

 length in my paper on Courtship in Birds'. This 

 always takes place when a bird arrives at the nest 

 to relieve its mate. It is evident that the se.\es al- 



(5> Auk. 



ternate in feeding and brooding the young. The 

 new arrival at the nest, after its mate has left, 

 waddles around so that the young is in front of her 

 breast. The young at once raises its black head 

 and shows by its vibrating throat that it is calling 

 for food. The parent often appears indifferent, 

 preens her own feathers and the down of her off- 

 spring, gapes sleepily and darts her head angrily 

 at a neighbor. The young become more insistent 

 and tries to wedge open the bill of its mother. She 

 at last gives a gulp, curves her head down, opens 

 wide her bill and appears to swallow the head and 

 neck of her hopeful. The process is soon repeated ; 

 the young always seem ready to disappear into the 

 cavern of its parent's mouth. 



Whether the great volume of noise that goes out 

 from this ledge is the courtship song or not I can 

 not say, but it is doubtless augmented by the call- 

 ing of the young for food. It suggests thousands of 

 rattling looms in a great factory, a rough vibrating 

 pulsing sound, and may be written down car-ra, 

 car-ra, car-ra. 



Taking advantage of the strong sea breezes and of 

 the currents deflected upwards by the cliffs, the 

 Gannet is able to soar on rigidly outstretched wings 

 for a long time without flapping. One,which I 

 watched passing within a few yards of me, circled 

 ten times to within a few feet of a ledge crowded 

 with its kind, and ^ach time he dropped his feet 

 as if about to alight, but each time drew them up 

 again and sailed by. Except for a momentary flut- 

 ter just before each attempt to alight, his wings were 

 held rigidly outstretched. The circle was one of 

 three or four hundred yards in diameter. On each 

 of the last three times he executed a smaller circle in 

 addition, thus completing a figure of eight. On the 

 eleventh attempt he dropped suddenly on the ledge 

 close to his mate on her nest. The bill-shaking and 

 bowing and caressing that went on was in the most 

 spontaneous and eager fashion. They appeared 

 over-jcyed to meet again. 



Before flying from the ledge the Gannet generally 

 poises motionless for several moments with its eyes 

 and bill pointed upwards, perhaps in order to watch 

 for an opportunity to fly without colliding with an- 

 other bird in the air. It then leaps clear of its com- 

 panions and of the ledge, and with tail turned 

 down as a brake, it swiftly descends until it gathers 

 impetus enough to rise. 



At Grand Greve in the early part of August I 

 frequently saw Gannets singly or in groups of two 



