^I's* 111 ] Anthony on the Black-vented Shearwater. 223 



THE BLACK-VENTED SHEARWATER {PUFFINUS 

 OPISTHOMELAS). 



BY A. W. ANTHONY. 



Mr. Leverett M. Loomis has recently published in the 

 Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences (Ser. 2, Vols. 

 V, VI), a series of notes on the Water Birds of Southern Cali- 

 fornia treating largely on the migration of certain species. 



It is not my intention to criticise the above papers nor to in 

 any way throw discredit upon the published observations of the 

 writer, but, as the subject is one to which I have paid especial 

 attention for a number of years, to place on record a few of my 

 notes on one of the species observed by Mr. Loomis, as they 

 are in some respects at variance with the conclusions arrived 

 at by that writer. 



In his 'California Water Birds' (No. II, p. 2), Mr. Loomis 

 says: "Winter migration in birds nesting in the Northern 

 Hemisphere is a well-known fact, there being continual move- 

 ment southward and northward as the zone of snow and ice 

 advances and retreats, but migration southward in the Northern 

 Hemisphere in winter to breeding grounds appears to have 

 escaped the observations of ornithologists. Such a migration 

 exists in the Black-vented Shearwaters." And again (1. c, p. 7) : 

 " The Black-vented Shearwaters at Monterey were undoubtedly 

 migrating to a breeding habitat farther South. While their desti- 

 nation may have been north of the equator it seems highly 

 probable that they did not stop short of the Southern 

 Hemisphere." 



That the Black-vented Shearwater is a resident on the coast 

 of California, nesting on several of the islands of the peninsula 

 and coast of Southern California at least, I have known for 

 several years. Just how far north their breeding habitat extends 

 I am unable to say but have found the species not uncommon 

 on several occasions off the Columbia River during the summer 

 months and in November and January. 



As very little has been published regarding this Shearwater, 

 and as almost nothing is known of its nesting habits, I will take 



