May 15, 1909-] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
773 
One afternoon I hauled one of the little brats 
out of a hole hanging to my finger. We lay 
on the grass on the edge of the cliff, played 
with him for an hour and laughed at the way 
he would fight. He would jump clear off his 
feet for a chance to bite your finger. If he 
caught it he would hang like a parrot; if he 
missed he turned a somersault and landed in 
the grass below. Time and time again he would 
hurl himself at the challenging finger and go 
rolling like a ball down the steep incline, unable 
to stop. The instant you assisted him to his 
I feet he was ready to fight anything that ap- 
■ proached within six inches of his nose. 
My first experience with the old puffins pre¬ 
judiced me. I wanted a puffin’s egg, so I drop¬ 
ped on the ground, thrust in my arm to take 
one, but was somewhat taken in myself. The 
' odds are always against your getting the egg 
if there is an old setting puffin hen in the hole, 
j I thought at first I had run my hand in a 
I beaver trap and I could not get loose till I had 
dug the beast out and pried her jaws open. She 
had cut through the flesh of my little finger to 
the bone. 
I I had one more experience with an old setting 
I puffin that I cannot forget. I had carefully ex¬ 
tracted her from the nest and dropped her in 
the grass. Instead of taking her liberty, she 
turned and took me by the leg. She hung on 
and fought like a mad bull pup till I had to 
choke her loose, and she dove back into the 
hole. 
We. might have lived on the rock for a month 
and climbed over it every day and not known 
a petrel was there if we had not found their 
hiding places. They were never seen flying 
about the rock in the day time. By digging we 
unearthed their small white eggs. One of the 
parents stayed in the burrow every day. The 
minute one was disturbed it crawled clear back 
into the furthermost corner and hid. 
The petrel nestling is fed during the day by 
the parent thrusting the beak down its mouth 
and injecting him with a yellowish fluid. The 
old birds seem to be experts at this, for if you 
take one out of the burrow he will immediately 
“play Jonah” in your direction with surprising 
power of projection. A dose of rancid fish oil 
shot up your sleeve is not pleasing to your 
nerves and your nostrils. I will never forget 
the evening we made the dangerous trip to the 
top of the rock in the dusk and hid there on 
the north slope. At the last gleam of daylight 
the petrels swept in upon the island like a swarm 
of bats. Those in the burrows came chittering 
out to meet them. The ground beneath seemed 
full of squeakings and the air of soft twitter¬ 
ings and whistlings until it felt uncanny. We 
frequently felt the breath of swift wings, but 
it was all like a phantasy, for not a bird could 
be seen, not even a shadow. How a petrel could 
find his own home and his mate in an acre of 
nesting holes hidden all about in the grass and 
in the darkness of the night is more than I can 
understand. 
A murre wants to live in the midst of the 
multitude. If you were to isolate the murre I 
do not know whether he would die of lonesome¬ 
ness like the bee or not, but he likes to be in¬ 
closed in living walls where he has to force 
his way in and out. 
William L. Finley. 
[to be concluded.] 
A New Bogoslof. 
We have more than once told the story of 
the Bogoslof group of islands in the Bering 
Sea, not far from Unalaska. It is known that 
the oldest of the group is but little more than 
a hundred years old and the youngest hardly 
more than twenty-five, but a couple of months 
ago there was an addition to the Bogoslof family, 
for about March 10 another island is reported 
to have thrust itself above the sea. 
This was not done secretly. It is said that 
from about March i to 10 a series of fearful 
rumblings, explosions and eruptions took place 
in the neighborhood of the Bogoslof group and 
the natives for miles around knew that some¬ 
thing was happening. Besides that, old Bogoslof 
was in violent action, throwing out fire, ashes 
and sand. Captain McKay, master of the steam¬ 
ship Dora, reports the throwing up of the island, 
but little is known about it, for no one has been 
near to it. Some Aleuts, sent to learn what had 
occurred, returned, saying that they would not 
go near the place; that there was fire on Bogos¬ 
lof and a new island had appeared. 
The British Columbia White Bear. 
In January, 1905, Dr. Hornaday described, 
under the name of Ursiis kermodei, a new bear 
taken on Gribbel Island, British Columbia. It 
was described as being much like a black bear, 
but as being in color “clear creamy white with 
no trace of brown, black or any other dark 
color.” 
Dr. J. A. Allen, of the American Museum of 
Natural History, has recently published in Vol. 
XXVI. of the Bulletin of the Museum, a paper 
on the White Bear of Southwestern British 
Columbia. This is based on two skins recently 
received at the museum, with the very imperfect 
skull of the type of U. kermodei, a complete 
skull and the rostral portion of still another, 
all loaned by Mr. Kermode. The skins in 
question differ markedly from the type skin be¬ 
cause they are more or less tinged on the head, 
shoulders, and to some extent on the back 
and sides, with buffy, creamy, orange, or even 
rufous color. This color is difficult to describe 
because its shades appear differently in different 
lights. The teeth in the skulls at hand present 
no tangible differences from those of the black 
bear of the Kenai Peninsula, but there are dif¬ 
ferences in the shape of the skull, which Dr. 
. 411 en finds relatively longer, narrower and more 
convex in , dorsal outline than in the Alaska 
black bear. Similar specimens have been taken. 
Dr. Allen states, from the lower part of South 
Bentinck’s Arm, latitude 52, north to Nass Bay. 
at the head of Portland Inlet, latitude 55, and 
from Aristazable, Princess Royal, Gribbel and 
Pitt islands on the coast to a considerable dis¬ 
tance into the interior. 
It is generally admitted that definite knowl¬ 
edge as to the specific relationship of our 
bears is sadly lacking. The best authorities are 
believed to be still uncertain as to what consti¬ 
tute specific characters in the bears. Color is 
a character quite without value, and we are told 
that there is great variation in the skulls, even 
within the species. 
In view of this uncertainty, it is not sur¬ 
prising that there are some zoologists who feel 
doubtful as to the validity of Kermode’s bear 
and are disposed to consider it a mere color 
phase of the black bear. A century ago a yel¬ 
lowish or white bear was described from the 
Southern States, and the black bear has two 
well recognized color phases, and yellowish cubs 
have been reported from Washington. Grizzly 
bears even in the same locality may be of almost 
any color from black to bright yellow. Besides, 
the question of albinism must be considered, and 
the possible relationships of these specimens with 
the little known glacier bear, U. emmonsi. It is 
probable, therefore, that it will be some time 
before the last word shall be said about bears 
in general, and in the meantime there may be 
a suspension of opinion as to the validity of 
Ursus kermodei. 
Dr. Allen’s paper is valuable not only for its 
description of the material in his hands, but also 
for the questions that it suggests. 
Wild Things in the City. 
Last week during the migration a number 
of native birds were seen in different parts of 
New York city. Of course this is not very un¬ 
usual at this season of the year. The time has 
been—though it was a good many years ago— 
when a woodcock was started in Union Square, 
and after making two or three short flights in 
the park finally took wing and flew off eastward 
along Fifteenth street between the tall houses 
on either side. This year brown thrashers were 
seen in St. Paul’s church yard digging for 
worms, and a male scarlet tanager dropped in 
there and for some time sat resting among the 
white blossoms of a magnolia tree. After he 
had rested for a while he flew from one tree 
to another looking like a sheet of flame as he 
passed along. 
One spring a few years ago a couple of sap- 
suckers flying from some point near the City 
Hall Park struck against a plate glass window 
of an eating house in Park Row and both were 
killed. We are all of us more or less familiar 
with thb fact that wild ducks occasionally settle 
in the lakes in Central Park, where, indeed, they 
nest every year, and the much more common 
fact that at the Zoological Park in the Bronx 
at almost any time in spring and autumn wild 
ducks may be seen coming in, alighting with the 
captive wild ducks, and then perhaps going off 
to continue their journey northward. 
Some years ago a correspondent sent us a list 
of the wild creatures to be found within the 
limits of the city of Boston, and among these 
foxes were named. A recent issue of the Tran¬ 
script of that city says that seven baby foxes 
have been taken from a den on the Newton side 
of the Charles River below Norumbega Park. 
The cubs, which are about half grown, are 
confined in a large box in the basement of the 
station. Several weeks ago a patrolman saw an 
old fox running along the bank of the river and 
after some difficulty discovered the entrance to 
the burrow. 
Saturday a squad of officers, armed with 
shovels and a gun, found four other entrances 
to the den. They commenced digging in a spot 
as near the center as possible, leaving a man 
on guard at each hole. One tiny fox made a 
dash for liberty, but was caught and immediately 
made friends with his captor. When the den 
was finally opened, the remaining six were hud¬ 
dled in one corner. 
