Reports of Field Agents 411 



I availed myself of the cooperation of the Commissioner of Inland Fisheries 

 and Game, Hon. Willis E. Parson, and his warden, Capt. Herbert L. Spinney, 

 and visited a number of other colonies of birds. 



As a result of these investigations it appears that Leach's Petrels are again 

 breeding in small numbers at Pumpkin Knob, one of the Damascove Islands. 

 A good-sized colony of Herring Gulls are also located there, but the Terns 

 which formerly occupied the place have disappeared. The colony of Herring 

 Gulls at White Bull in Casco Bay has increased largely, several hundreds 

 breeding there this year. I have mentioned the return of these birds to Otter 

 Island and its small satellites, all of the Vinal Haven group. These hardy 

 birds have maintained their hold on nearly all of the colonies newly occupied 

 by them within the last few years, and this season they succeeded in raising 

 many young while less hardy species failed. Many Laughing Gulls came to 

 Maine this spring and remained all summer, though they seem to have raised 

 few, if any, young. The adult birds were commonly seen twenty miles east 

 of their breeding-place through the summer for the first time for many years. 

 They also ranged, as is usual, 20 miles west of that place. 



Terns, with the constant increase of the Herring Gull, have been constantly 

 driven to smaller islands and even dry ledges where they have never before 

 been known to colonize. As I have stated, these birds raised almost no young 

 owing to the heavy rains. Eider Ducks are lingering at many places along the 

 coast where they have not been known in summer for years, and it is probable 

 that some are soon to be, or now are, breeding at new points. Red-breasted 

 Mergansers remained all summer as far west as Casco Bay, and one pair was 

 said to have nested within these waters. One pair of Canada Geese remained 

 all summer in the waters of the lower part of the Kennebec River. A colony 

 of Great Blue Herons was visited in Boothbay. There were about fifty nests, 

 all containing young birds in early June. Night Herons are in much less 

 evidence than they were a few years ago. Ospreys, in some sections, appear to 

 be increasing, and Bald Eagles seem to be holding their own, if not increasing. 



The Piping Plover continues to breed on our shores. A few Bartramian 

 Sandpipers were seen in the vicinity of Portland late in July. Harbor seals 

 which have become, within the last twenty years, much reduced in numbers are 

 now to be found in considerable numbers in several colonies chiefly west of the 

 Penobscot waters. The Katahdin Park proposition, which, so far as territorial 

 possession is concerned, was defeated at the last session of the state Legis- 

 lature, has been declared a game preserve by the Commissioner of Inland 

 Fisheries and Game and regulations declared March 31, 1922. By this decree 

 go,ooo acres, more or less, containing, among other rare animals, moose, black 

 bears, beaver. Spruce Grouse, Pileated Woodpeckers, Canada Jays, and North- 

 ern Ravens, have become a wild-life preserve. I visited this territory in Sep- 

 tember. It contains not only Mount Katahdin, the highest and wildest moun- 

 tain in the state, but also a wide expanse of wild land about its base. Fresh 



