140 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



lioneycombed with their burrows among the roots of the trees. This 

 seemed rather unusual to me, as all the other colonies that I had seen 

 were in open, treeless situations. 



On St. Lazaria Island, near Sitka, Alaska, the Leach petrel breeds 

 abundantly in company with a much smaller number of forked-tailed 

 petrels. The bird breeding in southern Alaska has been recognized 

 by several experienced naturalists as a distinct species under the 

 name of Oceanodroina heali^ but the characters ascribed to it hardly 

 seem to warrant its separation as a species and perhaps not even as a 

 subspecies. Mr. George Willett (1912) estimated that there were 

 about 20,000 pairs of this species nesting in this reservation in 1912. 

 He says : 



It is by far the most abundant breeding bird on the reservation. Evei'y- 

 where on the island where the soil is deep enough are found the burrows of 

 this bird. The burrows and nests are similar to those of the last species but 

 are found in thousands on the flat top of the island among the timber and 

 brush, where fur cut a does not seem to occur. Also they evidently nest con- 

 siderably later than furcata, as no very large young were seen and a few fresh 

 eggs were noted as late as August 15. 



Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1897) thus describes the nesting of the Leach 

 petrel on this island : 



The entrance to the burrows are semicircular and usually open out under 

 some clump of grass or a bunch of leaves, so that it is partly hidden. From 

 the entrance the burrow runs at an easy slant for a few inches and then parallel 

 with the surface of the ground, from two to five inches below. The total length 

 of the burrow varies greatly, being from one to three feet. It is seldom 

 straight but usually very crooked. The birds in digging evidently follow the 

 direction of least resistance. The debris is scratched out into a slight mound 

 in front of the entrance. The cavity at the end of the burrow is about three 

 inches in height by five inches broad, and contains on the saucer-shaped floor a 

 slight lining of dry grass blades. 



A still more populous colony exists in the Forrester Island reser- 

 vation in the same region. I quote from Prof. Harold Heath's (1915) 

 report in regard to it, as follows : 



It is difficult to estimate the number of these birds nesting on South Island. 

 The Indians sometimes call the place " the basket " since it is so full of holes, 

 but when asked regarding the number of holes or birds their guesses ranged 

 from ten thousand to two hundred and fifty thousand. In a rough way the 

 islandi" was measured into a number of plots and in each of these the number of 

 nests was estimated. The result totalled not far from seventy-five thousand, 

 or one hundred and fifty thousand birds, and this is certainly a conservative 

 estimate. 



Almost as soon as a landing was made small openings were noticed in the 

 moss covering the rocks, and while these appeared surprisingly similar to those 

 made by mice, a minute's work was all that was necessary to disclose their 

 true character. Others were half hidden in the grass and among the under- 

 brush, and from the central valley to the summits of both hills the soil was 

 riddled with holes. In various places from four to seven were counted in a 



