THE LEACH'S PETREL 



365 



in that occupation until dawn, when he 

 is off again. 



They have three very distinct calls ; 

 one might be named "heralding their 

 arrival" ; another, when calling their 

 mates to their respective homes, "the 

 song of greeting," and a third, when 

 they are flying about their nests, "the 

 feeding notes." 



After their departure in the morning 

 the atmosphere is impregnated for a few 

 hours with the odor of musk. They 

 must emit this liquid while flying about 

 their nests, for the bird has no odor be- 

 yond a slightly oily scent. Perhaps it is 

 an instinctive habit, to make the sur- 

 roundings objectionable to any of their 

 possible enemies during the nesting 

 season. 



The young are hatched during the lat- 

 ter part of July, and by September 15 

 they are gone, not to return until the 

 following year. The young are com- 

 pletely covered with the finest kind of 

 mouse-colored down, and in the hand re- 

 semble a ladies' powder puff, both in size 

 and texture. The parent birds as a rule 

 leave the nest during the day after the 

 young are hatched, returning at night 

 for the purpose of feeding them. The 

 young birds do not leave the nest until 

 they attain nearly their full growth and 

 plumage. 



While the shores of the Bay of Fundy 

 are the principal nesting-places for this 



BALTIMORE, one of the oldest 

 and most aristocratic cities of 

 this country, has allowed itself to 

 grow to a size of 700,000 people without 

 a sewer system, depending on the old 

 methods of disposing of the sewage by 

 means of cesspools and otherwise. 



In order to protect the oyster trade, 

 one of her great industries, amounting 



EGG OF LEACH'S PETREL I NATURAL SIZE 



bird, Little Duck Island certainly does 

 its share as a nursery for the Leach's 

 petrel. Thousands and thousands of 

 these birds return to rear their young 

 where they themselves were hatched. 

 One marvels at the instinct which guides 

 them on a foggy night, from several hun- 

 dred miles out at sea, to a small spot on 

 the ocean scarcely half a square mile in 

 size, and on a course straighter than any 

 ship could be steered. Upon arrival, 

 each flies straight to his own burrow, 

 although there are a hundred next to his, 

 and to the human eye all look alike. 

 Perhaps it is this same instinct which 

 brings back the young another year to 

 build their nests, as their ancestors have 

 done, on the cliffs and fields of Little 

 Duck Island. 



MORE 



to some fifty millions of dollars a year, 

 the State of Maryland has recently 

 passed laws forbidding the discharge of 

 sewage into the Chesapeake Bay or its 

 tributaries without first purifying it. 

 This has brought the city face to face 

 with one of the most stupendous engi- 

 neering projects of modern time — i. e., 

 the installation of a storm-water and a 



COLOSSAL WORK IN BALTIMORE 



By Calvin W. Hendrick 

 Chief Engineer, Sewerage Commission of the City of Balti 



