172 



THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



found it in general too late for fresh eggs. 

 Young birds and badl}' incubated eggs 

 were found and four fresh specimens were 

 taken. In June of this year a friend and 

 myself succeeded in securing permission to 

 visit the Island, which is under Govern- 

 ment restriction, and at that date, June 

 17-21, in almost every case fresh eggs were 

 found, though two badly incubated ones 

 were taken. 



The Ashy Petrel seems to have no choice 

 as to where its modest egg shall be laid, 

 but nests anywhere it can find shelter, from 

 the low portions of the Island near the 

 ocean, to the summits of the highest cliffs. 

 It is said that a former light-keeper de- 

 lighted in constructing stone walls about 

 the island for which he had material gratis 

 and in abundance. These walls extend in 

 all directions over the flat portions of the 

 Island and where they have not fallen at 

 the hand of the industrious Petrel hunter, 

 they bespeak credit for the builder. It is 

 beneath these low stone walls that the Ashy 

 Petrel is to be found usually, for the inter- 

 stices of the rocks have become filled with 

 drifting sand and debris, making quite a 

 solid structure, and beneath the center of 

 these walls, on the soft sand, protected 

 largely from the light, the Petrel lays its 

 one e^^. 



In my experience the most certain way 

 of di.scovering the Petrel is by its strong 

 musky odor. Some writers claim this is 

 not invariable, but I contend it must be 

 either by scent or by chance. I noticed I 

 could always discover the Petrels best early 

 in the morning, when the air was quiet. 

 The odor would then seem to permeate the 

 air about the spot. When a strong wind 

 was blowing the scent could be caught by 

 getting on the leeward side of the walls. 

 A few nesting sites may be of interest. 



In 1892 I found an egg on the floor of 

 a cave about ten feet from the entrance 

 with the parent bird incubating it. The 

 cave was dark and damp, and the egg was 

 laid on a little moss growing on the ground. 

 It was about to hatch. This year while 



ASHY PETREL. 



climbing about on the summit on East End 

 I secured a young Auklet (Ptychoramplius 

 alentiais), and after examining it let it go 

 into a crevice in the cliff. While watching 

 it disappear I observed a forked tail of a 

 bird vibrating as it breathed, and on tearing 

 away the rocks found a Petrel sitting on its 

 fresh ^Z'g. The bird was sitting with its 

 head as far into the crevice as possible, thus 

 being protected from the light, but its tail 

 was in view. The elevation was about 200 

 feet above the ocean. 



I have found the Petrels nesting beneath 

 the stone walls within a few inches of Cas- 

 sin's Auklet, but have never found any sign 

 of a burrow made by the Petrel. In 1892 I 

 took an egg from a Petrel at the base of an 

 elevated footpath at the West End, and 

 carefully replaced the stones. This year 

 on going by the place I remembered the in- 

 cident and thought I would try again. On 

 stooping down I detected the familiar 

 musky odor, and soon had a fresh &^%. It 

 is possible that this was the same bird I 

 found in 1892, and that it had clung to this 

 nesting site these two years. Within a foot 

 of this Petrel was a Pigeon Guillemot 

 (Cepphns colurnba) sitting on her two eggs. 

 I found one Q.^<g about two feet in a crack in 

 a cliff plainly in view, and it proved to be 



