REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I918 I9 



it succumbed to Amherst's attack and Pouchot. its comutnandant, 

 surrendered his force of 300 men. Lord Amherst then renamed 

 the place Fort William Augustus. The island still holds traces of 

 the French redoubt, and its historic association, together with its 

 present purpose, serves to establish its interest to the community. 



Little Duck Island, Maine. A few years ago Mr Benjamin 

 Walworth Arnold of Albany, honorary curator of ornithology in this 

 Museum, acquired possession of this island, which lies some 8 miles 

 south of Mount Desert island, for the purpose of creating a protected 

 lodge for the nesting water fowl. The fact of the existence of this 

 bird sanctuary is too little known to American bird students and 

 it is appropriate to the interests of this subjfect to present the 

 following brief account of it which Mr Arnold has prepared : 



Little Duck island lies some 8 miles south of Mount Desert island and is quite 

 alone in the ocean. It has been the nesting home for sea birds away back into 

 the dim past. There are no springs there, no fresh water, consequently many 

 of the birds' vital enemies could not live there even if they succeeded in swimming 

 from the nearest island across the four or five miles of open ocean intervening. 



When the herring gulls leave the harbors of New England and farther south in 

 the spring for their nesting places on the Maine coast, many come back to Little 

 Duck island and by the middle of May the winter residents have moved north- 

 ward and the summer residents have started to build their nests. 



By ( ounting the birds from different parts of the island as they return before 

 sunset, we believe that from twelve to fifteen thousand gulls summer there, and 

 this number is doubtless at least doubled by the young broods of three in each 

 nest. 



By about the first of June the eggs are all laid and by the first of July they 

 are nearly all hatched and the young birds are running in the tall grass and weeds 

 trying hard to hide from people as well as from some of the older gulls which 

 occasionally become fierce and attack the young viciously, often killing a good 

 many of them. The gulls' nests on Little Duck island are all on the rocks or on 

 the ground. Many of them are under the smaller spruce trees but I believe they 

 naturally prefer small depressions in the rocks. 



Early in June the black guillemots (sea pigeons) lay their eggs in cavities in 

 the rocks or under broken rocks. The guillemot's eggs are extremely beautiful 

 and the two eggs lie in a slight depression in the rock or on a few small stones but 

 always protected from rain by rock above. 



Early in June the night herons return to the rookery on Little Duck. These 

 very interesting birds, like the guillemots, are absolutely quiet at the nesting 

 place and there is nothing to indicate the presence of the rookery until one is 

 right upon the nests. The nests are built in thickets of small spruces and balsam, 

 generally in easy reach from the ground. 



Perhaps the most interesting member of Little Duck's summer colony is 

 Leach's petrel, which arrives early in July, and in some years, is probably more 

 numerous than all the other bird inhabitants combined. The petrels are weird 

 little birds. They fly as if they constantly skimmed on the surface of the waves. 

 The petrel has a little bump on the top of its bill similar to all the albatross family. 



