
SEA-SIDE ORNITHOLOGY. 235 


































other species, Leach's Petrel, breeds off the coast on nearly 
all the islands from Cape Elizabeth to Newfoundland, ap- 
pearing in May and leaving in September. 
Later in the season the open waters are visited by flocks 
of ducks, most of them known to the fishermen as “Coots.” 
There are twelve or fifteen varieties, more or less common, 
which our exhausted space will not permit us to enumerate. 
umerous as these may at certain seasons seem to be, they 
come now in decimated numbers, and are so severely hunted 
on their feeding grounds that but very few remain with us 
to spend the winter in our waters. 
In midwinter the outer waters of our coast are frequented 
by several remarkable forms of sea-birds, combining several 
of the peculiarities of the albatros, the gull, and the petrel, 
and presenting a very singular and striking union of the 
more noticeable characteristics of each. They never appear 
with us near the land. They can therefore be only observed 
at a season of the year least favorable for marine explora- 
tions. Our knowledge of them must be therefore largely 
derived from the observations of unscientific persons who 
meet them in their winter fishery. They are classed by Mr. 
Lawrence in the tribe of Longipennes. Three belong to the 
family of Procellaridæ, namely, the Fulmar or Fulmar Pe- 
trel, and at least two species of Shearwater Puffins. Others, 
called Skua Gulls, or Jagers, are placed among the Laridæ. 
Their habits are, however, as well as their forms, very dif- 
ferent from those of the true Gulls. Four species of these 
Jagers, in company with several species of Gulls, spend their 
Winter off our coast, and are to be met with there at no other 
time. The study of their habits, no doubt replete with as 
much of interest as of novelty, is still reserved for those 
Students of science for whom the difficulties and the dangers 
Of their investigations may give an added claim to their un- 
Certaking. Certainly we know of no species of our Atlantic 
COast-birds whose history is so much involved in doubt, or 
: Which promise more of interest in their investigations. 


