266 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



All day long they fly, on tireless wings, like a hawk or gull, now skim- 

 ing like a swallow, but rarely seen at any considerable elevation above 

 the water. However turbulent the water, they will follow exactly the 

 risings and fallings of the waves, now just skimming above the crest 

 of a hill of water, then skimming down its incline with the precision of 

 a machine so exactly do they maintain their distance above the water. 

 All this time their eager eyes are searching in every direction for 

 something edible, upon seeing which they go pattering towards it, 

 literally running on the water; if the supply of food is large they will 

 settle in the water in the midst of it, but if only a small scrap is found 

 they gather it up in their bill while still on the wing and continue their 

 endless flight. Their food consists of oily scraps of any substance 

 they may find; what they usually find is uncertain for their stomach has 

 not been found to contain anything other than a yellowish oily fluid, 

 but certainly they are very fond of fish liver. They seem to always 

 live at peace with each other and with other birds for even when sev- 

 eral of them are excitedly gathering up scraps of food, never a word of 

 complaint or anger is uttered by any of them, even when one gets a 

 piece from right under the bill of another. Sometimes during long 

 continued storms they become exhausted from hunger and some per- 

 ish and their little bodies wash ashore and again when weakened by 

 hunger they may be blown inland with the storm they are unable to 

 combat, and sometimes found many miles from the seacoast. 



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This summer I was fortunate in being able to spend a week on Duck 

 Island, a small island near Mount Desert off the Maine coast. The 

 trip was made especially to study and photograph the large Herring 

 Gull colony that inhabits this island, consequently it was with added 

 delight that we found that the island was also densely populated with 

 Leach Petrels. 



Arriving at Southwest Harbor at about ten o'clock in the morning 

 we soon had engaged the services of a fisherman to take us out to the 

 island in his gasoline launch although he was very chary about ventur- 

 ing outside in the very dense fog which made it impossible to see a 

 boat's length ahead. By following the deep sound of the fog whistle 

 which bellowed at frequent intervals from the lighthouse on the island 

 we were enabled to keep in the right direction and at last sighted the 

 island, not however, so dense was the fog, until several minutes after 

 we had first heard the waves breaking on the rocky shores. 



