HISTORICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF HOMING. 51 



The 11 birds which survived were released in Galveston harbor Saturday 

 morning, June 4, at 5 o'clock. These birds were in a very weakened condition, 

 owing to the fact that we had not then begun to construct our cages with 

 individual compartments. All the birds were carried in one cage. Mr. Wilson 

 reported that in transit the birds piled up on one another sometimes 3 and 

 4 deep. As their claws are extremely sharp, this resulted in much injury to 

 the birds underneath; their feathers were torn out and the skin made raw. 

 Furthermore, they were not eating well, for we again had not deemed it neces- 

 sary to provide minnows for the full trip. When they were released all the 

 birds flew ashore and alighted upon the sand. They were released in a light 

 head wind. On the following day a heavy wind set in against the birds and 

 continued all day. On June 8 Mr. Wilson left Galveston for Key West. 

 On June 9, at 4 p.m., he saw one of the marked sooties resting upon a piece of 

 driftwood. The red marking was plainly visible to the naked eye and still 

 more clearly to be seen with the glasses. The bird was seen by several other 

 people, including Mr. Greenwood of Galveston and Mr. Brown of the First 

 National Bank of New York. The distance out from Galveston was approxi- 

 mately 409 statute miles. Mr. Wilson is one of the zoological collectors of the 

 Laboratory and is thoroughly familiar with both species. He reports that 

 with the above exception neither of the two species was seen either going to 

 or coming from Galveston farther out than 18 miles from Bird Key (boats 

 leaving Key West bound for Galveston pass within 4 miles of Bird Key). 

 This attempted return of the sooty is quite remarkable in view of the fact that 

 the direction which he had chosen was almost due east (the Mallory boats 

 steam due east and west on these trips for a large part of the way). 



Even up to June 11 we had hopes that some of these birds would return, 

 but on that day a heavy and continuous wind set in from the south against 

 them, which finally ended in a storm against which no bird on the open water 

 could contend. As the Galveston birds which we did get to return on our 

 second attempt required about 6 to 11 days (see p. 58), it is probable that the 

 birds on this first release were overtaken by the storm before they reached 



Bird Key. 



THE FIRST MOBILE TRIP. 



On Friday, June 3, 1910, we captured 7 noddies and 7 sooties, which were 

 sent to Key West on the Vellela at daybreak June 4. They were marked as 

 shown in table 15. 



TABLE 15. 



Sooty : 



No. 1. Orange, cross on breast. 



2. Orange, one vertical line on breast. 



3. Orange, one horizontal bar on breast. 



4. Orange, splotched breast. 



5. Orange, solid breast. 



6. Orange, left half neck and breast. 



7. Orange, right half neck and breast. 



Noddy: 



No. 1. Bright greenish yellow, cross on head. 



2. Bright greenish yellow, one vertical line on head. 



3. Bright greenish yellow, one horizontal bar on head. 



4. Bright greenish yellow, splotched head. 



5. Bright greenish yellow, solid head. 



6. Bright greenish yellow, left half head and left wing. 



7. Bright greenish yellow, right half head and right wing. 



