Among the Water Fowl 



We lingered awhile, spell-bound at the vision, 

 then we started out with the keeper to see the 

 bird-wonders at closer range. Black Guillemots 

 bred abundantly in the crevices under the loose 

 rocks that were piled up on the shores by the fury 

 of the gales. The breeding-season was over, but 

 some still sunned themselves on the rocks, or were 

 swimming or diving off-shore. Crossing the sand- 

 bar, where Yellowlegs, Turnstones, and Sandpipers 

 fed, we inspected some of the abounding Petrels' 

 burrows, and then turned our attention to the great 

 colony of the island, that of the Herring Gulls. 

 The usual custom of this species is to select or 

 make a hollow in the ground, and build around it 

 a nest of grass, feathers, and seaweed; but some- 

 times — on account of persecution, it is probable — 

 they take to the trees. So it was here, to a large 

 extent. Nearly all the nests were in the woods. 

 Some of them were placed at the foot of trees, or 

 under spreading spruce saplings, but most of them 

 were built in the tops of the spruces which grew 

 usually only about twenty or twenty- five feet in 

 height. When the nests were on the ground they 

 were generally rather slight affairs, but on the trees 

 they were very bulky platforms. The Gulls had 

 brought load after load of grass and seaweed, till 

 the mass was often large and firm enough to hold 

 a man. At any rate some of them held me very 

 comfortably while I gazed around over the floor-like 

 top of the forest, and watched the Gulls wheeling 

 about in the air. I could almost imagine how it 

 felt to be a young Gull. Some of the nests were 

 built in the upper crotch of the trees, others on 



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