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94 VOL. XI THE PASSING OF THE PEDRO ISLAND SEA-BIRD ROOKERY By MILTON S. RAY ?,VITH TWO PHOTOS BY OI4UF J. HEINEMANN HILE the number of sea-birds which formerly made their summer home on the rocky island which forms the extremity of Pedro Point in San Mateo County, can not be compared to the great Farallone Island rook- ?ries, yet until recently various sea-birds nested here in quite large numbers, and many of the eggs of the California Murre displayed for sale in San Francisco markets were obtained from this source. It was with a view of learning what birds and what number of birds were nesting on Pedro that we started to journey down the coast on the morning of July 12, 1908, in an open flat-car termed a passenger coach by the "Ocean Shore" man- PEDRO ISLAND AS SEEN FROM THE MAINLAND agement. Our party consisted of H. A. Snow, Oluf Heinemann, and the writer. On leaving the train we walked along the beach to where the point juts out from the mainland. Here we found a number of deep and rather broad sea-channels which separate Pedro Island from the mainland and precluded our reaching it. From the shore we observed a few sea-birds flying about the lofty and precipitous rocks o Returning to town we engaged a crab-fisherman to take us out in his boat to the island. He informed us that in previous years he had easily collected as many as thirty dozen murre eggs on a trip, but of late the birds had become scarce owing to the continual blasting by the Ocean Shore Railroad Company in its construction work on the opposite mainland near the point. In fact he added that he had made a trip a few weeks before and had found but half a dozen eggs of the murre. After