North Atlantic
Voyage from Liverpool to Boston. In termination.
1911.
August 9
[August 9, 1911]

  Noon observation lat. [latitude] 42.26; long. [longitude] 69.16.
  A rather warm day, partly cloudy, partly sunny, with light southerly
wind and smooth sea shrouded here and there with heavy banks of fog.

Oceanites oceanica.
Herring Gulls
Common Terns in Boston Harbor
Scoters.

  Just before breakfast I visited the bows of the steamer & saw there
9 or 10 Wilson's Petrels in the course of as many minutes. We
looked for them in vain after this nor were any other birds noted
until mid afternoon when, as we neared Boston Light, two young
Herring Gulls passed us. After anchoring off the light for a couple of hours
to wait for the turn of the tide we entered the new channel at
6 P.M. and reached Quarantine an hour later, anchoring there for
the night. At least 25 Terns which looked like S. hirundo [Sterna hirundo] were
seen inside the Brewsters [Brewster Islands] flying about low over the water in
their rather compact flocks containing from six to ten birds each. One
flock was seen well inside the harbor & not far from Quarantine.
Allen reported seeing two Scoters but they escaped my notice.
The pilot told me that Seals are seldom observed now in or
near the entrace to, the harbor, having been well nigh exterminated
there within the past few years.