Michigan Ornithological Club 65 



1. (7). Loon, Gavia imher. Several pairs seen, one with two newly 

 hatched young. 



2. (51). Herring Gull, Larus argentatiis. The only gull found about 

 the islands; nesting in several places, though most of the nests were empty 

 and very few young were seen. The nests were alwa^^s on the ground, in 

 driftwood, or among grass or bushes, never on bushes or low trees although 

 the old birds frequently alighted on the tops of the stunted evergreens near 

 the nests. These were often bulky and well built and frequently lined in 

 part at least with green moss and fresh weed stems or ferns. Nests in which 

 young had been reared were comparatively scarce and it was evident that 

 hundreds of nests had been robbed and abandoned. Among more than four 

 hundred nests examined on one island all but two were empty, each of 

 these containing a single fresh egg. Possibly a half dozen downy young 

 were seen trotting about among the cornel bushes or hiding in the weeds 

 and grass, while not more than a score at most were swimming about a few 

 rods from shore, and less than a dozen already able to fly were wheeling 

 about with the old ones overhead. There were not less than two thousand 

 of these adults and it is to be hoped that some of them subsequently laid 

 more eggs and reared young on the island. Doubtless human brutes were 

 partly responsible for this state of affairs, but there is every probability that 

 this island is overrun with foxes which naturally feast on young gulls and 

 eggs as a change from the steady diet of rabbit which is their main depend- 

 enc-e. I saw several rabbits (hares), and many remnants of rabbits and 

 gulls, but did not see any foxes or find their tracks or burrows, but the 

 island was about a mile in diameter, much of it densely wooded, and I wa^ 

 able to spend only an hour on it. 



3. (64). Caspian Tern, Sterna caspia. This beautiful bird, the largest 

 of the genus, is far from common. Just' before entering the Bay of St. 

 James I heard its hoarse "quawk" and saw a single one flying high over 

 the island. Subsequently several more were seen but the islanders did not 

 seem tO' discriminate this species from the common Herring Gull, and it was 

 several days before I could locate the breeding ground, a tiny ledge nearly 

 a dozen miles away. At last I lamded on the little islet in a dense fog only 

 to find a hundred or more empty nests and a flock of angry terns filling 

 the air with their hoarse cries. As I drew my skiff up on the steep 

 shingle I found scattered eggs of the Common Tern about my feet and soon 

 noticed three large heaps of mixed eggs, more or less broken, w^here they 

 had been hurriedly thrown together as they were collected from the nests. 

 There were more than two hundred eggs of the Caspian Tern in these three 

 heaps and probably half as many of the Common Tern. Evidently they had 

 been collected in this way by someone who had done the work thoroughly, 

 and with the intention of returning on the next day to collect the fresh-laid 

 eggs for eating. The crew of the tug from which I had landed were unani- 

 mous in attributing this dastardly work to some "Frenchmen" known to be 

 haunting neighboring islands and living by fishing, wood-cutting and stealing. 

 They scouted the idea that any "white fisherman," or even Indian, would be 

 guilty of such meanness. 



