Wilson's Petrel in New York Harbor 1 



By James Chapin 



Wilson's petrels, Oceamtes. oceamcus (Kuhl), better known 

 among sailors as " Mother Carey's chickens," are especially in- 

 teresting in that they breed in the southern seas in January and 

 February and then migrate to the North Atlantic, where they 

 spend the months from May to September. They are thus 

 of regular occurrence off our coast in summer, not infrequently 

 visiting our harbors. Indeed, as Mr. F. M. Chapman states in 

 his list of " The Birds of the Vicinity of New York City," they 

 sometimes enter the Lower Bay of New York harbor in numbers. 



Observations during 1905 and 1907, enable me to amplify this 

 statement. My first experience with the petrels was in the sum- 

 mer of 1905, when, during early July, they were numerous in the 

 Upper Bay, and might be watched to advantage from the Staten 

 Island ferryboat. On several occasions, fully forty were seen 

 during single trips across the bay. They tarried about a week, 

 and then I saw them no more until June 22, 1907. On that 

 date, approximately twenty-five were observed from the ferry- 

 boat in the morning; and in the afternoon, with Mr. J. T. Nichols, 

 I counted about an equal number. The day following, Mr. 

 Andrew Johnstone, of the American Museum, went fishing off 

 Great Kills, in the Lower Bay, and later reported that he saw 

 fully a hundred. For several days, until the twenty-sixth, they 

 were seen regularly in the Upper Bay, and one still remained on 

 July 1. They then disappeared until August 5; but from the 

 fifth to the twelfth were again noted in varying numbers in the 

 Upper Bay. 



On the afternoon of August 6, I repaired to Great Kills and 

 set out in a rowboat in search of petrels. A short distance 



1 Presented February 15, 1908. 



58 



