Page:Condor8(5).djvu/14

Sept., ?9o6 I BIRDS OBSERVED IN TI-IE KRENITZIN ISLANDS, ALASKA II7 "With these birds [Fulmarusglacialisglupischa] are associated in a manner, another bird of which I obtained at Amchitka Island, a single specimen which had been thrown up dead by the sea and so far advanced in decomposition that to lift it separated the members of its body. This dead bird resembled those associated with the Pacific Fulmars and was, so far as possible to identify it, a specimen of Puffinus tenuiroslris Tenam." 0ceanoclroma leucorhoa (Vieillot). Leach Petrel? A petrel of this species was taken with a fresh egg from a burrow at the top of a cliff on Egg Island, July 3 . No other examples were seen at any time. Mr. Robert Ridgway very kindly examined the bird and under date of Sep- tember 30, ?9o2, wrote concerning it as follows: "The species is Oceanodroma leucorhoa, not c?yfitoleucura. The latter has the tips of upper tail-coverts black, not sooty gray, much broader, with edge running straight across instead of ob- liquely; the bases of the reetriees much more extensively, abruptly and more purely white. In fact a very different looking bird. Your difficulty has resulted from imperfect descriptions of O. leucorhoa which (my own included) ignore the dusky tip to the coverts, which, however, I find on examination of numerous speci- mens, is always present unless worn away, which is very often the ease." 0ceanoclroma furcats (Gmelin). Forked-tailed Petrel. The fork-tailed petrel was first seen July I2 when several birds with their eggs were taken on Egg Island; July 3 two downy young were taken from burroars on the same island. August ?9 the ship'was anchored in Akutan Harbor, Akutan Island, and dur- ing the evening there was a heavy fog. This was the first time I ever saw birds come aboard ship in any considerable numbers and I shall transcribe my notes made at the time as being of more interest than anything I can write from memory. "August ?9.--At about 9:3 a petrel was brought down [to my room] by the quartermaster; in a short time three more and then an auklet were produced by Davie [Q. M.]. Going on deck I found O. furcats flying about the mast-head light--there were probably five or six in sight. In a short time I had a dozen laid out. There was a moderate fog at first and as this thickened the birds increased in numbers. Fully a dozen were in sight like so many moths. They struck the rigging, bridge, and wheel-house and fluttered to the deck in a dazed condition. The fox [a young animal caught by the men and kept on deck] soon had a dozen or more in and about his box and the eats were running them over the deck. On all sides of the ship their eries were heard. They flew into the chart room, the fire room and down the ventilator to the main deck. Even from my room in the lower wardroom their eries are plainly audible." This was the only night the birds came aboard ship during the whole summer. Phalacrocorax pelagicus Pallas. Pelagic Cormorant. First seen May ?6 when one was noted just outside of Dutch Harbor; May 29, eight to ten were seen on rocks in English Bay; a few individuals. were also noted at Unalga, June 29; in Tigalda Bay, August 5; on Ugamak, August ?3. No spedmens were taken but those seen were probably of the above spedes. 1}lerganser serrator (Linnaeus). Red-breasted Merganser. Three sets and a female of this species were obtained from Round Island in Beaver Inlet, July 4. Some of the birds deserted their nests as our boat reached the island. The first nest containing ten hard-set eggs was placed on the ground at the end of a pas- sage way thru the high grass, somewhat resembling a mammal runway. The eggs were covered, being buried in the loose grass and down which constituted the nest. The second nest, containing ten heavily-incubated eggs, was in thick tall This is probably the Iorm (O. beali) described by Emerson in THE CONDOR Ior March, ?9o6, page 54.--J. G