THE LEACH'S PETREL: HIS NURSERY ON 

 LITTLE DUCK ISLAND 



By Arnold Wood 



With Photographs by the Author. 



LITTLE DUCK ISLAND, nine known and who nest there from May 



miles south of Northeast Har- until August, are to be seen by the thou- 



bor, Mount Desert Island, sand. 



Maine, is the nesting place for three spe- I doubt if it is generally known that 



cies of sea birds — the herring gull, the the petrel lives there at all, though, as a 



black guillemot, or sea pigeon, and the matter of fact, I think I am conservative 



Leach's petrel, also called white-rumped in saying that ten petrels nest on the 



or forked-tailed petrel. This island is island to every gull. While this island 



about half a mile long and a third of a is occasionally visited in the daytime for 



mile wide, partly covered with scrub the purpose of seeing the gulls, one would 



pines, underbrush, and wild raspberry never know from any outward sign that 



bushes. Although its shores are very the petrel is in point of numbers the chief 



rocky, the interior is fairly well covered inhabitant. 



with soil, which is, however, not deep, as I have visited Little Duck Island a 



rocky ridges are to be seen in all direc- number of times, and studied the bur- 



tions. Among the birds above mentioned, rows of the petrel, which are found there 



the herring gulls, whose rookery is well in large numbers. These burrows or 



A PETREL BURROW ON THE GROUND: THE PETREL IN THE FOREGROUND IS ABOUT 



TO ENTER THE NEST 



