trti^lore 



A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE 



DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Official Organ of The Audubon Societies 



Vol. XV July— August, 1913 No. 4 



The "Old Man" 



A MAINE COAST BIRD STUDY 



By FRANK A. BROWN, Beverly, Mass. 

 With photographs by the author 



OFF the far eastern coast of Maine, some miles from the shore and about 

 midway between the mouth of Machias Bay and the harbor entrance 

 of Cutler, stands an island of some ten or twelve acres area. From all 

 sides landing is most difficult even w T hen the sea is calm, and that is not a 

 common occurrence. With any wind and waves it is quite impossible of 

 approach, as the long jagged points and steep-sided chasms become a line of 

 roaring foam. The black spot on the coast chart, called the 'Old Man,' 

 represents this desolate place. The island is really separated into four parts, 

 the main portion being divided about in its center by a straight walled chasm, 

 which runs from side to side and is some forty or fifty or more feet in depth, 

 but visible only on near approach. Somewhere about at its center a rock has 

 become wedged in the top, so that one may cross easily from one part to the 

 other. The other two portions are perpendicular-sided rocks of some twenty or 

 twenty-five feet in height, and stand well apart from the main portion of the 

 island. The tops of these two rocks are covered with a thick growth of grass, 

 with a few marine flowering plants, but with no bushes or trees. The main 

 island is crowned with a growth of spruce, some partially living, but many dead, 

 whose long weather-bleached arms pointing skyward make a most weird 

 appearance. Underneath these trees is an almost impenetrable growth of 

 raspberry bushes, which, in late July, attain a height of some six or seven feet. 

 This island is the home of many sea-birds, although of but few species. Its 

 unique distinction lies in the fact that each year there are reared in the dense 

 tangles of its thickets supposedly from fifteen to twenty-five families of Eider 

 Ducks. Outside of this island, to my knowledge, the Eider Ducks are rarely 

 known to breed on the eastern coast of the United States. Some few pairs of 

 Crows nest in the spruces, while, covering the available places all about its 

 rocky border and along the edges of the grass, extending even into the shelter 

 of the underbrush and bordering trees, hundreds of big Herring Gulls lay their 



