Breeding of Leach’s Petrel on the Coast of Maine. — In the Jan¬ 
uary number of the Bulletin (Yol. II, 1877) Mr. N. C. Brown refers to 
the Leach’s Petrel (Thalassulroma leucorrlicea, Linn.) “as found for the first 
time breeding on the New England coast,” and mentions meeting with its 
nests on the Green Islands in Casco Bay. That Mr. Brown was not the first 
person to find it breeding even on the Green Islands would not he a fact 
of sufficient moment to call for correction did not his statement suggest 
the quite important error implied: that it is not known, and has not been 
known, to breed elsewhere on the coast of Maine. That this Petrel breeds 
along the greater part of the coast of Maine has been known as a fact for 
many years. Whether Casco Bay is its most western point remains to be 
ascertained. 
In June, 1850, I made several weeks’ explorations in the neighbor¬ 
hood of Eastport, and found this bird breeding in all the Grand Menan 
group—-which geographically, if not politically, are part of the Maine 
coast on the island of Eastport itself, and on a small island between 
Eastport and Machias. An account was published (Bost. Jour. Nat. 
Hist., Vol. Y I, p. 297). On the following year, in company with Dr. 
H. R. Storer, I continued these explorations, and ascertained that this 
species breeds abundantly on every suitable island as far west as Mt. 
Desert. Several years afterwards, in the summer of 1855, and again in 
1856, in company with Dr. Dixon, of Damariscotta, we traced their breed¬ 
ing, in considerable numbers, as far west as Round Pond harbor, in Bris¬ 
tol, and in the Damariscove Islands, in the ocean, not far from the mouth 
of the Kennebec. In 1873, on Peakes Island, I saw specimens of the eggs 
and birds taken by Messrs. Franklin Benner and Spencer Baird Biddle in 
Casco Bay the same summer. On the strength of these observations, made 
by others as well as myself, in my Catalogue of the Birds of New Eng¬ 
land (Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Yol. XVII, p. 450), I spoke of this 
Petrel as a summer resident on the coast of Maine. I have by me, in 
MS., the letters of both these gentlemen in regard to their observations. 
I subjoin a brief extract from the notes of Mr. Benner : — 
The first visit was made to Junk-of-Pork Island, about three miles 
northeast of Peakes, in Casco Bay, on July 16, 1873. The island has an 
area of half an acre at low w r ater, and in the centre is an almost perpen¬ 
dicular piece oi rock about forty feet in diameter and nearly twenty-five 
feet high. A dozen or more burrows of this Petrel, each with their single 
egg, were found in the earth that had accumulated on the top of this rock. 
Ihe eggs were about half incubated. In two nests young were found only 
a day or two old. One of the parent birds was found in each burrow, and 
in one instance both. 
“ On the 22d of the same month I visited White Bull Island, located 
twelve miles farther to the eastward, and comprising a much larger extent 
of surface than the first. Here were also found the nests of the Petrel 
among many of the Terns. Young birds were found in many of them, and 
some eggs.” 
He speaks of having found them “ abundant,” and probably breeding in 
several other “of the many barren islands in the neighborhood.”— T.°M.' 
Brewer, Boston, Mass. 
Bull. N.O.C. 2, July, 1877. p, 
W.3/. 95C.ZO. '735- 
JSfestmg- of Leach's Petrel. 
By F. H. Carpenter. 
Ibid -> p- 436ffot, & Stream, 
Bryant’s "Additions to the Ornithology 
of Guadalupe Island." by J. P. N. 
3. Oceanodroma leucorrhoa , Leach’s Petrel. 
Abundant. A large series obtained, and also 
many eggs. Nest in hillside, and burrow ex¬ 
tending from one to three feet; at the end of 
this, on a few pine needles, Mr. Bryant found 
the single egg always laid by Petrels. Aver¬ 
age measurement of fifty eggs taken March 4th 
and 5th is 35.7 x27 millimeters. 
O.& O. XII. Apr. 1887 p. 52 
*2- 
