412 AUDUBON 



quitoes trouble me so much that in driving them away I 

 bespatter my paper with ink, as thou seest, God bless 

 thee ! Good-night. 



July 2Ij.. The Charadrius semipalmatus breeds on the 

 tops or sides of the high hills, and amid the moss of this 

 country. I have not found the nest, but have been so 

 very near the spot where it undoubtedly was, that the 

 female has moved before me, trailing her wings and 

 spreading her tail to draw me away ; uttering a plaintive 

 note, the purpose of which I easily conceive. The Shore 

 Lark has served us the same way; that nest must also be 

 placed amid the deep mosses, over which these beautiful 

 birds run as nimbly as can be imagined. They have the 

 power of giving two notes, so very different from each 

 other that a person not seeing the bird would be inclined 

 to believe that two birds of different species were at hand. 

 Often after these notes comes a sweet trill; all these I 

 have thought were in intimation of danger, and with, the 

 wish to induce the sitting mate to lie quiet and silent. 

 Tom Lincoln, John, and I went on shore after two Bears, 

 which I heard distinctly, but they eluded our pursuit by 

 swimming from an island to the main land. Coolidge's 

 party went to the Murre Rocks, where the Guillemots 

 breed, and brought about fifteen hundred eggs. Shat- 

 tuck killed two Gannets with a stick ; they could have 

 done the same with thousands of Guillemots when they 

 landed ; the birds scrambled off in such a hurried, con- 

 fused, and frightened manner as to render them what 

 Charles Bonaparte calls stupid, and they were so terri- 

 fied they could scarcely take to wing. The island was 

 literally covered with eggs, dung, and feathers, and smelt 

 so shockingly that Ingalls and Coolidge were quite sick. 

 Coolidge killed a White-winged Crossbill on these Murre 

 rocks; for several weeks we have seen these birds pass 

 over us, but have found none anywhere on shore. We 

 have had a beautiful day, and would have sailed for Bras 



