56 THE CONDOR I Vol. IV been there for along time. They were built of grass on a foundation of guano, and often over a foot high. The re- mains of fish were scattered about in all directions. Baird cormorant (]?ala- crocorax p. respier, dens) was also found breeding along the more inaccessible places in the face of the cliff. Its smaller size and the white flank patches easily served as a distinguish- ing mark. The third variety was the tail petrel (Oceanodroma furcala) com- paratively common. We sometimes found the two species breeding in the same burrows; the latter were more in- clined to live in small colonies and where one or two nests were found others were generally found near by.
This petrel is larger than the Leach
petrel and easily distinguished by its light slatishogray plmnage. Some of these birds were found with fresh eggs, PHOTO BY BOHLMAN. TUFTED PUFFIN AND NEST. double-crested cormorant (Pltalacro- corax dilophus); they were found on both the rocks we visited and were even more numerous than Baird cor- morant. In the burrows we found a great many tufted puffins (Lunda cirrltata) and Leach petrels (Oceanodroma leucor- boa). We managed to secure a good pic- ture of an adult female of the former species on her nest, by carefully un- covering her burrow. Besides the Leach petrel we .found the forked- others with young. Sometimes the males were incubating and sometimes the females. The California murre ( Uria troile cali- fornica) and the western gull (Lares occi- dentalis) were both very common about the rocks. The tourres occupied every available place. The two peaks of the second rock we climbed were occupied entirely by two great murre rookeries. A good picture was secured of a colony of murres looking down from the top of Shag Rock. The gulls were floating
