LIFE HISTORIES OE NORTH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS. 5 



astern before rising again. This it could easily do in rough weather 

 by slowly unfolding its wings and launching into the air oflf the 

 crest of a wave, but in calm weather it was necessary for it to run 

 along the surface to gain a little headway. If the wind was blow- 

 ing strongly it could easily catch up with the ship without flapping 

 its wings. It sits very high on the water and swims slowly. 



Professor Dill (1912) says that the notes uttered during the 

 nuptial dance are softer than those of the Laysan albatross and 

 end "with a sound like the stroke of a bell under water or deep within 

 the bird's stomach." They often give a Avhirring groan while 

 quarreling over their food, and a similar note is sometimes heard on 

 the wing, though they are usually silent. 



The black-footed albatross is usuall}^ sociable and gentle with its 

 neighbors on its breeding grounds, where it is more or less intimately 

 associated with other albatrosses, boobies, shearwaters, and terns. 

 It is on particularly intimate terms with the Laysan albatross in- 

 dulging in the dance with it, but it has a bad habit of abusing its 

 neighbors' young, and Doctor Fisher (1906) says that "the process 

 sometimes finishes the victim, for young which appear to have been 

 misused are frequently seen lying around dead." 



Winter. — After the prolonged duties of reproduction are over the 

 birds scatter about for a few months of vacation. Breeding birds 

 may be found on Laj^san Island from November to August, but 

 undoubtedly some individuals are earlier breeders than others, and 

 I doubt if the breeding season for each pair of birds is extended 

 over any such long period as ten months; probably it is not much 

 over six months. Certainly, adults are seen at sea, hundreds of 

 miles from their breeding grounds, during at least six months of the 

 year, from May to October. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Breeding range. — Central and western Pacific Ocean, north of the 

 Equator (Laysan, Caspar Rico, Midway, Marshall, Volcano, and 

 Bonin Islands). Formerly on Marcus Island. Breeding grounds 

 protected in Hawaiian Islands reservation. 



Range. — North Pacific Ocean, mainly north of the Tropic of 

 Cancer. East to the coast of North America, from the Alaska Pen- 

 insula southward to Lower California (San Quentin Bay). South 

 nearly or quite to the Equator. West to Formosa Channel, Japan 

 ( Yezzo) , and the Kurile Islands. North to the Aleutian Islands and 

 southern Bering Sea (Bristol Bay, Alaska) in simimer. 



Egg dates. — Bonin Islands : Eight records, September 28 to De- 

 cember 1. Midway Island: Ten records, November 18 to 21. Lay- 

 san Island: Six records, November 18 to December 29. 



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