Penobscot Bay, Maine.
1896
July 9
(No 2)
(Heron Island) the branches where Watrous tried to catch them & when
he reached the ground one had disappeared. I put the other 
two in an empty nest (photographed with a made up set of their
eggs on the 27th June) at the foot of a stump and took three
pictures, not without difficulty for we had to tie their legs
to keep them from running away. When tied they bit 
with a good deal of force & uttered a tremendous squealing cry
which brought a cloud of old birds up over us. Some of
the old Gulls were so tame to-day that I walked up to
within less than 40 yards of them as they sat on the
tree tops & flying shots offered every few minutes. I ought
to kill a pair but thus far have been quite unable
to bring myself to the point of doing it. It would be
difficult to get the chance elsewhere & the birds on 
Heron Island are so quiet and trustful that I cannot even
bear the thought of pointing a gun at one of them.  
  At Brimstone Ledge, however, when we landed this afternoon
(as soon as we had taken lunch on the boat running her
down to the Ledge under the jib the while) I committed
an act of the most cold-blooded bird murder by strangling
a female Black Guillemot which with her set of two
beautiful fresh eggs we took from a narrow crevice under
a heap of angular blocks & slabs of stone. I could not reach
the nest at all and Conary who has a slender hand &
arm could only just do it. The poor bird bit us a little
but without sufficient force to cause pain. I felt that
I must have a Maine coast breeding specimen & it was
better of course to get one in this way than to use the 
gun and run the risk of wounding and losing one or more
of these tough, hard-diving birds.