LIFE HISTORIES OF KORTH AMERICAN PETHELS AND PELICANS. 9 



Cassin (1858) quotin'g Peale, said of its vocal powers: "Usually 

 birds of this species are silent, but sometimes they quarrel over offal 

 thrown from the ship, then they bray in much the same tone as 

 an ass." 



Winter. — At the close of the breeding season in the summer, old 

 and young birds s*^art on their fall \vanderings wdiich cover nearly the 

 whole of the Pacific Ocean lying north of the Tropic of Cancer, from 

 Asia to North xVmerica. At certain seasons this is evidently a com- 

 mon species on the coast of California, for Mrs. Bailey (1902) says: 

 "At Monterey in stormy winter weather Mr. Loomis has seen some of 

 the birds in the bay. The largest number he recorded from the region 

 were seen off Point Pinos, a dozen being counted in an hour." 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Breading range. — Western Pacific Ocean, north of the Equator 

 (Wake and Bonin Islands) and perhaps farther north. 



Range. — North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. Kast to the coast of 

 North America from Northern Alaska (Norton Sound) southward 

 to southern Lower California (Magdalena Bay). Southern limits 

 not determined ; records confused with other species. West to For- 

 mosa, China, and Japan seas, Kurile, and Commander Islands and 

 Okhotsk Sea. North throughout Bering Sea to Bering Straits, in 

 summer. 



Egg dates. — Bonin Islands : Eighteen records, August IT to De- 

 cember 3; nine records, October 20 to Movember 12. 



PHOEBASTRIA IMMUTABILIS (Rothschild). 



LAYSAN ALBATROSS. 



HABITS. 



As an introduction to the life history of this species it seems fitting 

 to give a brief description of the wonders of Laysaii Island, in our 

 mid-ocean bird reservation, where the specimens were obtained from 

 which the Hon. Walter Rothschild (now Lord Rothschild) first de- 

 scribed the Laysan albatross. As I have never visited Laysan Island 

 or seen this albatross in life, I can not do better than to quote from 

 the published account of it by Dr. Walter K. Fisher (1903) to whom 

 we are indebted for most of our knowledge of the breeding habits of 

 this species. 



Reaching out toward Japan from tlie main Hawaiian group is a long chain 

 of volcanic rocks, atolls, sand bars, and sunlcon reefs, all insignificant in size and 

 widely separated. The last islet is fully two thousand miles from Honolulu and 

 about halfway to Yokohama. Beginning at the east the more important mem- 

 bers of this chain are: Bird Island and Necker (tall volcanic rocks), French 



