BREWSTER : BIRDS OF THE CAPE REGION, LOWER CALIFORNIA. 33 



which he and others have met with at the Santa Barbara Islands,^ where it was 

 also seen by Mr. Griunell in " the spring of '97." ^ 



On July 10, 1896, Mr. Anthony found some Black and Socorro Petrels 

 breeding to^^ether on one of the Coronado Islands (in the Gulf of California), 

 but although the two fresh eggs (taken with the parent birds) of the former 

 species which he obtained on this occasion were new to science, his description 

 of them is limited to the remark that, like all those which he has " subse- 

 quently handled," they " were unmarked." His account ^ of this colony is so 

 involved and so obscurely worded as to leave the reader in doubt as to which 

 of the two species just mentioned many of the passages relate. Apparently 

 only a few of the birds were positively identified, owing partly to their noc- 

 turnal habits, partly to the fact that most of their nests were in holes " under 

 very large boulders or in cracks in the ledges," where it was impossible to 

 get at them. Mr. Anthony states definitely, however, that the Black Petrel is 

 an exceptionally late breeder, and that he has found it " incubating as late as 

 September 8." He also says that it makes little attempt at nest-building, 

 " though a few sticks are often dragged into the burrow with an evident desire 

 to construct somethins resemblins: a nest." He makes no mention in this 

 article of havins: found the Black Petrel breeding elsewhere than on Coronado 

 Island, but I have an egg which was taken by him on San Benito Island, off 

 the Pacific coast of the Peninsula, on July 26, 1896. In shape it is elliptical 

 ovate, in color dead white, without markings or gloss. It measures 1.38 

 X 1.04. 



At a meeting; of the A. 0. XJ. Committee on Nomenclature, held in Wash- 

 ington in 1895, Mr. Ridgway stated that he had sent specimens of his Oceano- 

 droma townsendi to Mr. Salvin, who, on comparing them with the type of 

 0. melania in the Paris Museum, failed to find any differences by which the 

 two could be distinguished. 



Phaethon aethereus Lixjt. 



Red-billed Tropic Bird. 



Phaethon acfhereus Beldixg, Proc. U. S. Nat. IMiis., V. 1883, 545 (Cape Region ; Es- 

 piritu Santo Islands). ANxnoyv, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d ser., II. 1889, 

 86 (lat. of Cape St. Lucas). Bryant, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 2d ser,, IL 

 1889, 253 (Espiritu Santo Island). 



Mr. Anthony asserts that the Red-billed Tropic Bird " has been regularly 

 met with" in the latitude of Cape St. Lucas and occasionally further north. 

 A specimen was obtained by Mr. Belding at Espiritu Santo Island on Feb- 

 ruary 1, 1882, and a single bird which probably belonged to this species was 



1 Auk, IV. 1887,87. 



2 Pub. II. Pasadena Acad. Sci., 1898, 9. 



3 Auk, XV. 1898, 140-144. 



VOL. XLI. — NO. 1 3 



