538 LEACH'S PETREL. 



yacht at Mahone Bay, I had some difficulty in finding men 

 willing to make the trip to this island so far out at sea, and 

 where it is possible to land only in calm weather. The 

 day chosen was delightful, the sea smooth, and the 

 wind so favorable that we sailed out and back without 

 tacking. • 



The great desideratum in visiting this spot was the study 

 of the breeding of the Petrels, or Mother Carey's Chickens. 

 I was not a little surprised when one of the company told 

 me I could smell the birds before we reached the island if 

 the wind were in the right direction. I protested that he 

 was simply practicing a joke on my credulity, but he seemed 

 veritably in earnest. Very truly, on approaching the island 

 on the leeward side, and while yet several rods distant, the 

 peculiar musky odor of the Petrels was in every breath of the 

 wind. The lor;g swells carried our small boat, towed out 

 for landing, well upon the huge rocks, where we were 

 most cordially received by the keeper of the light-house 

 which the government has stationed here. The same Terns 

 which we found at Flat Island were breeding here, also, on 

 the ledges of the rocks, but in moderate numbers; and a 

 few of the Puffins, or Sea Parrots as they are called here, 

 had found a breeding place in the deep crevices of the rocks. 

 The Petrels, however, were the marvel of the place. Nearly 

 every square yard of turf was completely honey-combed 

 with their nesting burrows; and everywhere the air w^s 

 laden with their peculiar odor. Here and there the ground 

 was strewn with the wings and tails of the birds which 

 had been dug out and eaten by the dog belonging to the 

 light-house; the dog being kept without feeding, and obliged 

 to support himself entirely by this enterprise. The bur- 

 rows of the year were readily distinguished by their fresh 

 appearance and by the excavated dirt newly thrown out. 



