. The Canadian field-naturalist. Natural history. 1918] The Ottawa Naturalist 25 that the majority of the juveniles remain out at sea until maturity and only the breeding adults come in to them in the nesting season, accompanied by a few juveniles that can be regarded more or less as accidentals. Many pages could be covered with the results of the study of these birds on their nesting ledges. It is to be noticed that through the day all birds have the bill closed, while flash-lights at night show them with mouths wide open. A night visit to the cliff well repays the trouble. The continual chor
. The Canadian field-naturalist. Natural history. 1918] The Ottawa Naturalist 25 that the majority of the juveniles remain out at sea until maturity and only the breeding adults come in to them in the nesting season, accompanied by a few juveniles that can be regarded more or less as accidentals. Many pages could be covered with the results of the study of these birds on their nesting ledges. It is to be noticed that through the day all birds have the bill closed, while flash-lights at night show them with mouths wide open. A night visit to the cliff well repays the trouble. The continual chorus of harsh voices is subdued and there is little movement hauntingly by. It is strongest in the vicinity of certain cracks in the ground and the clefts under large stones scattered about the level. Weird voices are heard in the air and soft black shapes sweep by. They are Leach's Petrels, and the not unpleasant cdor proceeds from them. They nest in cavities in the ground where they spend the day and are only seen over land at night. Then they sweep around beating up and down the aisles of the spruce clumps or over the grassy meadows and the night is filled with them and their little low, weird song. Such IS the great birJ colony of Bonaventure. A Family on the ledges. However, there always seems to be a few uneasy spirits abroad even at night. Occas- ionally one returns and, in the darkness against the glow of the sea, glides across the view like a pale ghost. Where it alights, off in the darkness, there is an awakened chorus of voices and then silence comes again. From the sea in front come soft questioning mu-u-u-r-r-'s of the Murres taking their young off to sea before they are fledged, for none linger in the neighbourhood of the rocks once they take to the water. A sweetish pungency, different from the sharp reek of the ledges, wafts Groupe. Island. During our visits in 1914 and 1915, we esti- mated that there were in the neighbourhood of about eight thousand birds there.
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