leach's petrel 313 



petrels appear flying close over the water, in this direction 

 and that, turning quickly, or stopping to hover a moment 

 with outstretched feet to pick up some morsel. They often 

 collect in the wake of a vessel, and follow it for hours ; 

 but though the wTiite rump and their habit of walking 

 on the water proclaim them petrels, they rarely come near 

 enough to show the square tail which separates them from 

 the following species. Wilson's Petrel is also darker and 

 smaller than Leach's Petrel, but both look almost black 

 against the water. If one accompanies some fishing vessel 

 to the fishing-grounds, petrels and shearwaters may be at- 

 tracted close to the boat by throwing over cod liver, and then 

 the two petrels may be distinguished. The common spe- 

 cies in summer anywhere off the coast is Wilson's Petrel ; 

 Leach's Petrel, though breeding at that season on the coast 

 of Maine, is not commonly met with except as a migrant 

 in spring and in autumn. Occasionally petrels come close 

 in shore, particularly, according to Dr. Townsend, in foggy 

 weather. 



Leach's Petrel. Oceanodroma leucorhoa 

 8.00 

 Ad. — Entire bird sooty-brown (often apparently black) ; base 

 of tail white; tail forked. 



Nest, in burrows, on rocky islands. JEgg, white. 



Leach's Petrel is a summer resident of the North At- 

 lantic coast, breeding on the extreme outer islands along 

 the coast of Maine, and from there northward. It arrives 

 in May, and leaves in September. On Seal, Little Duck, 

 and Green Islands there are interesting colonies of these 

 birds. Eev. Mr. Job ("Among the Water-Fowl," p. 125) 

 describes a visit to one of these colonies. The burrows 

 that he opened ran under the turf just below the roots 

 of the grass, and ended in a sort of pocket in which a sin- 

 gle bird was incubating the single egg. Sometimes both 



