lO SAIITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 56 



whales ; on account of this habit they were called " whale birds." 

 The water was literally black with birds all around us as we sailed 

 through acres and acres of them, wildly scrambling to get out of our 

 way or rising in great clouds to sweep away over the smooth water. 

 For several hours we were almost constantly seeing or passing 

 through these great rafts of Shearwaters and I should not dare to 

 hazard a guess as to how many hundred thousand we saw. 



The Slender-billed Shearwater is supposed to breed in some of 

 the western Aleutian Islands, but we did not have a chance to investi- 

 gate. 



AESTRELATA FISHERI 



Fisher's Petrel 



A species of Acstrclata, apparently fitting the description of this 

 species, was fairly common in the Pacific Ocean from one hundred 

 to two hundred miles off shore, south of the Alaska Peninsula and 

 the Aleutian Islands, but we were not allowed to lower a boat to 

 secure any. We saw a few also about the Aleutian Islands and 

 secured one specimen at the entrance to Kiska Harbor on June 17. 

 This bird does not exactly fit the description of ftshcri, and there 

 seems to be some doubt as to whether there is any such species ; the 

 three species of Aestralata known as scalaris, gularis and fisheri 

 seem to intergrade more or less and it may yet be proven that all 

 three of these are based on individual variations in a single species 

 and should not be recognized as three different species. 



OCEANODROMA FURCATA 



Forked-tailed Petrel 



This pretty little Petrel was common in the north Pacific Ocean 

 and seen frequently about the Aleutian Islands, breeding on several 

 of them. The only breeding place we found was on Tanaga Island, 

 when they were just beginning to breed on June 25. 



Their nests were in burrows in the soft soil at the base of a steep 

 grassy hillside, a mile or so inland. Several burrows were dug out 

 by Mr. Beck, but only one fresh tgg was found and only one bird 

 taken. 



OCEANODROMA LEUCORHOA 



Leach's Petrel 



We saw a few in the north Pacific Ocean and a few about the 

 harbor at Kiska where one was shot. 



