86 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 



Occurrence of Phaethon cethereus and Capture of ^S'co^e- 

 cophagus cavolinus in Lower California. 



By A. W. Anthony. 



Heretofore it has been considered rather unusual to en- 

 counter the tropic bird north of Cape St. Lucas, although 

 it has been regularly met Avith in that latitude. I think, how- 

 ever, that it will be found to be ;> regular though perhaps a 

 rare visitant to the entire Pacific coast of tlje Peninsula. In 

 Jane, 1887, I saw tropic birds on two consecutive days at a 

 point about fifty miles north of Cerros Island (Lat. 29° N.) 

 I next observed them in September, 1888, wdiile on my way 

 from Ensenada to San Quentin. As we v.-ere passing Cape 

 Colnett, somewhere in the Lat. of 31° 15' N., a pair of tropic 

 birds joined the ship and flew about with the gulls for some 

 time; later in the same day a single bird was seen about 

 twenty-five miles farther south. I am reasonably sure that 

 I have seen one or two birds about the Todos Santos Islands, 

 sixty miles south of San Diego. ^ 



As no Pacific Coast record has been given of the appear- 

 ance of the rusty blackbird south of Alaska, I was not a 

 little surprised when I encountered the species at my camp 

 at the foot of the San Pedro Martir range in Low^er Cali- 

 fornia, where a single male bird was taken December 12, 

 1888. No others were seen, nor w^as S. cyanocephalus found 

 until some weeks later. Comparison of my specimen with 

 Avinter birds from the Eastern States proves it to be typical 

 S. carolinus. Nelson in his " Eeport upon the Natural 

 History Collections made in Alaska, 1877-1881," reports 

 S. carolinus from Sitka, which is, I think, the southernmost 

 record heretofore. 



* Dr. J. G. Cooper informs me that a sknll of a tropic bird was fonud by 

 Mr. Gruberon the coast of Mariu County about twenty years ago. W. E. 13. 



