The Leach Petrels 



leagues, lying silent where the eye saw only waving grass. The promise of 

 the situation so wrought upon us that we determined to return at evening 

 some time later, and did so on Monday evening following, July 23rd. 



We arrived a little after nine o'clock, provided with matches, bedding, 

 and water, and prepared to spend the night. We found the island still 

 silent, but we used the remaining moments of twilight to further deter- 

 mine the limits of the colony; and found that the dense salmon-berry 

 thicket was likewise occupied by Petrel burrows. 



At about ten o'clock the first note was sounded — from the ground. In 

 quality like that of a tiny cockerel, in accent like that of a glib paroquet, 

 came the cry, Petteretteretterell, etteretteretterell . The second phrase is 

 slightly fainter than the first, and is, therefore, just suggestively an echo 

 of it. After ten minutes, or such a matter, one sounded in the air. By and 

 by came another and another. And so the matter grew until by eleven 

 p. m. the air was a-flutter with sable wings, and the island a-hum with t's 

 and r's and /'s. This hour was typical of the entire night, although the 

 pace was perhaps a little more furious at one o'clock, when we roused for 

 another observation. We had spread our blankets in the center of the 

 grass field, regretful of the fact that the portion of the population under us 

 must needs go supperless for that night. Perhaps, therefore, it was our 

 presence which stirred the birds to unusual demonstrativeness, but I am 

 not at all certain that this was the case, or that our presence affected the 

 situation in the slightest degree. 



The air was full at all times of circling birds, at least several hundred 

 of them, probably several thousand. They flew about excitedly, much 

 more nimbly than in the daytime, but still erratically, incessantly clash- 

 ing wings with their fellows and now and then colliding with such force 

 that they fell down into the grass. Those which flew about uttered from 

 time to time the characteristic cry, but those a-wing were but a small por- 

 tion of the total number in evidence. The grass swarmed with birds work- 

 ing their way down through to the burrows, or else struggling out, all 

 giving from time to time the rolling cackle which is the accompaniment of 

 activity; while from the ground itself came an attendant chorus of cries. 

 Taken altogether, there were thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of 

 birds in motion, and the total effect of the rustling and the cackling (or 

 crowing) was a dainty uproar of notable proportions, a never-to-be-for- 

 gotten babel of strange sounds. And in this fairy tumult not the least 

 element was the peeping and whining of the chicks, both tended and 

 untended. 



The characteristic cry is that given above, but it was frequently 

 abbreviated to Petteretterell, etteretterell. This was the only adult sound 

 heard save a rolling cry rendered staccato in r's and I's, which came appar- 



2020 



