NATURE NOTES FROM ACADIA

IN THE FIELD

In the shallow water at the south end of the Tarn a number of bull-frogs have been feasting to a considerable extent upon the small killifish (Fundulus diaphanus) which maneuver about in compact schools. The big amphibians, sitting partly submerged in the water, suddenly dive into the finny multitude. A post mortem examination of one of the larger frogs revealed its stomach to be greatly distended with killifish. Great blue herons, kingfishers, herring gulls, bitterns, and possibly other birds, apparently attracted by the large number of small fishes, come to the Tarn to feed. Of necessity, in Nature where there is much life there is also much death. The levelling forces crop us everywhere.

On June 12 Messrs. Farley, Hickey, and Herbert, ornithologists from New York, found a nest and two eggs of the Black Guillemot high up in a crevice on Otter Cliffs. This record equals the earliest breeding record for the state of Maine according to F. H. Forbush ("The Birds of Massachusetts and other New England States") who quotes the authority, Mr. A. C. Bent. Ten days later the birds were still incubating the large greenish-blue heavily-spotted eggs.

On June 14 a party of CCC workers from the Southwest Harbor Camp discovered the body of a very young White-tail fawn in the region of Hall Quarry. Apparently the animal had been dead when born, no marks of any sort being present on it. From the tip of the nose to the root of the tail the fawn measured 15¼ inches. So ungainly did its long slender legs make it appear that I carefully measured all the body parts, reduced the figures to one-fourth actual size, and then drew the outline which appears on the right. The young of all hoofed animals are characterized by very long legs. Two or three days previous to this discovery a healthy albino White-tail fawn was found in the park by a CCC crew from the Eagle Lake Camp.

- A.S.