LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS, 61 



but in no instance was more than one obtained in a burrow. Although 

 both sexes assisted in the incubation, out of five specimens taken from 

 the burrows four proved to be females. The birds arrived in count- 

 less thousands in the evening, and most of them — the males probably, 

 or those not engaged in hatching — returned to sea at daybreak. 



Eggs. — There are four eggs of the pale- footed shearwater in Col. 

 John E. Thayer's collection, taken by Mr. Thomas Carter on Break- 

 sea Island, West Australia, on November 23, 1910, and October 16, 

 1911. There were " many hundred " nests in the colony, according to 

 the data given, each nest containing a single egg in a burrow. These 

 eggs are elliptical ovate or elongate ovate in shape; they are pure 

 white, smooth in texture, and somewhat glossy, rather different from 

 the eggs of other shearwaters that I have seen. These four eggs meas- 

 ure 67 by 38, 66 by 39, 61 by 38, and 60 by 38 millimeters. 



Whiter. — The following quotation from Prof. Leverett M. Loomis 

 (1918) tells us about all we know of the pale-footed shearwater as a 

 North American bird. 



So far as I am aware, this Southern Hemisphere shearwater has been re- 

 ported for the eastern side of the Pacific only from the vicinity of Point Pinos, 

 California, where Mr. R. H. Beck has secured during his various expeditions 

 ten specimens for the Academy and four for tlie University of California. Mr. 

 Beck's notes concerning them are as follows : 



During my eleven months' stay in 1907 I saw nine flesh-footed shearwaters. 

 They were then perhaps more plentiful than in other seasons, though the close 

 watch I kept on shearwaters that year and the abundance of sooty shearwaters 

 partly account for so many being seen. On February 27, while I was out 

 six miles northwest of the buoy amongst a large flock of fishing birds, I 

 noticed a flesh-footed shearwater flying past. A long shot caused him to circle 

 ofC and. drop, but in the choppy sea I would have lost him had not a Cooper's 

 shearwater circled about and showed me the dead bird's position. On April 29, 

 about six miles northwest of the buoy, I scared up a small bunch of sooty 

 shearwaters, and a flesh-footed swung up and was shot. June 25 was foggy, with 

 shearwaters abundant from Moss Beach to Seal Rocks. A mile or .so ofl" 

 Seal Rocks a flesh-footed shearwater, two hundred yards away, was seen flying 

 along toward Point Pinos. A dead sooty shearwater thrown into the air called 

 huu over and he was secured. He flew with slower wing beats and was more 

 deliberate in flight than the sooty shearwater. On July 22, while I was trying 

 to get early southbound Sabine's gulls that were resting in company with sooty 

 shearwaters some distance off Point Cypress, a flesh-footed slieai'water flew up. 

 A hasty shot, with but one barrel loaded, sent him off wounded, but I could 

 not find him on the rippling water. August 27 I was out about four miles 

 northwest of Point Pinos amongst tliousands of sooty shearwaters. As one of 

 the constantly passing throng flew by me, I noticed the light-colored bill and 

 sliot the bird, securing thus another flesh-footed shearwater. September 2, while 

 in the same vicinity, one of the shearwaters that flew over my head from behind 

 had a light-colored bill. Hastily dropping the oars and grabbing my gun, I 

 shot the bird, and, as anticipated, it proved to be a flesh-footed shearwater. 

 October 28 I was out about six miles northeast of the buoy and noticed a flesh- 

 footed flying south with a single sooty shearwater. A long shot at seventy-five 

 yards distance failed to stop him. November 4 I got out about eiglit miles 



