NO. 2298. THE GUANO BIRDS OF PERU—COKER. 499 



Nests of the gallinazos were observed in the islands of Lobos de 

 Afuera and Lobos de Tierra. In December, 1907, three nests of the 

 aura were found, one in a cave on the hillside, another under a small 

 overhangmg ledge of rock (pi. 53, fig. 3), and a third in a narrow deep 

 cave just above the water line on the beach. In the first case, as the 

 bird flew from the nest it emitted a brownish vomit, which created an 

 unendurable stench. Scarcely any effort seemed to have been made 

 to form a nest. The eggs are sHghtly yellowish white, spotted and 

 blotched with reddish brown, and little reduced at the smaller end. 

 The measurement of two eggs from one nest were 72 by 50 mm. and 

 74 by 50 mm., and of two from another nest, 71 by 47 mm. and 

 72 by 47 mm. These arc smaller than the dimensions given by 

 D'Orbigny (83 by 54 mm.). The photograph (pi. 53, fig. 3) shows two 

 young birds with whitish down and blackish bills fairly well con- 

 cealed against the rock beneath a barely overhangmg ledge. 



THE CHIROTE. 



The small "chirote," Cinclodes taczanowskii Berlepsch and 

 Stolzmann, is of particular interest as the only land bird, beside the 

 condor and the buzzard, observed on any of the islands. They were 

 seen only on islands of the south — the Chinchas — and the Isla Vieja 

 at Independencia Bay. 



Our camp on the north island of the Chincha group was located 

 on a small crescent-shaped bit of beach between the water and 

 the cliffs, where the chirotes were regularly seen flying back and 

 forth from the chff to the beach. Their nests were not observed, 

 but the time was early winter of the southern hemisphere — June, 

 1 907. In the gonads of a specimen taken the eggs were distinguishable 

 only with a lens. The stomach contained sand and bits of shells of 

 Gastropods and Lamellibranchs. 



The lively Cinclodes recalls both the T^Tieatear and Dipper, as it runs with upturned 

 tail from stone to etone, takes short low flights, or hunts for crustaceans, mollusks, and 

 insects in the water, equally happy on the streams of the Andes or the desolate lake 

 Bides of Patagonia. The note is a sharp trill, while three eg^ are laid on a bed of grass 

 and fur in holes.' 



It is believed that this is the first record of this bird from the 

 Peruvian Islands. Cinclodes belongs to the family Furnariidae 

 peculiar to the neotropical region. 



THE SEA LIONS IN RELATION TO THE BIRDS. 



Two kinds of "lobos" are distinguished on the Peruvian coast — 

 "lobos ordinaries" and "lobos fines," or "lobos de dos pelos" 

 {ordinary "lohos" and Jine "lohos" or "Mos" with two coats). This 



> A. H. Evans, in the Cambridgo Natural History. 



