268 AMEtWAN ORNITHOLOGY 



We made our headquarters at the cottage of Mr. Van Horn, a lobster 

 fisherman and the only human resident on the island with the excep- 

 tion of the three lighthouse keepers and their families. Seldom has it 

 been our fortune to find a host so genial and obliging; his only fear 

 seemed to be that he could not do enough for our comfort. 



From the house the only signs of bird life to be seen were Barn and 

 Tree Swallows, Song Sparrows and occasionally a Herring Gull lazily 

 flapping his way over the water, or a Black Guillemot rapidly flying 

 over the waves. By listening intently, above the roar of the breakers 

 could be heard the harsh discordant cries of the large colony of Gulls 

 on the other side of the island. The fog had now cleared away some 

 but it was still impossible to see beyond a quarter of a mile and all ob- 

 jects at a nearer distance were hazy. During the five days that we 

 were on the island, the first four were very foggy and it was only on 

 the morning of the fifth when we were obliged to return home that the 

 sun appeared brightly above the horizon. 



We had gone but a few hundred yards along the shore when we were 

 greeted by a faint Petrel odor, a disagreeable odor that is always found 

 about their nests and that is always retained by the birds or eggs after 

 years in a cabinet. Upon investigation we found numerous small 

 holes in the ground, varying from two to three inches in diameter; 

 most of them were located under roots, stumps or overhanging stones 

 but a little farther on we found that the ground was literally honey- 

 combed with the entrances to their little burrows. 



But for the presence of the holes and the faint odor, scarcely percep- 

 tible when standing up, one would not dream of the hidden bird city 

 that they were walking over. Not a Petrel was to be seen and at no 

 time during our stay did we see a Petrel on the wing of his own ac- 

 cord. We dug out perhaps ten of the burrows in order to get the pho- 

 tographs that we wanted. At the end of each was a single Petrel sit- 

 ting on a single white egg; in only one of them were two of the birds 

 found together. It is a customery habit of this species for one of the 

 birds to sit on the egg during the daytime while its mate is roaming 

 about over the water in search of food, returning at dusk to relieve his 

 weary partner and allow her to get her meals. The ground in the 

 sections of the island most frequented by the Petrels is of a soft peaty 

 nature, covered with grass or pine needles for the holes are very 

 numerous in the groves of pines on the island. None of the burrows, 

 many of which were very fresh and must have been made this year, 

 showed any signs of the dirt which was removed when digging, and if 

 as indicated, they had carried it by mouthfulls to dump over the edge 



