Vol s x 6 n n Anthony on the Black-vented Shearwater. 2 2C 



three thousand feet, so that nothing could be learned of their 

 nesting at that point. Three days later, however, we dropped 

 anchor in Wheeler's Bay, at the southern end of the island, where 

 the land is somewhat lower, and here a colony was found near the 

 water. The burrows were in every instance either under a huge 

 block of lava or in a crevice, where they were as much out of our 

 reach as they were in the cliffs. A few of the burrows might have 

 been opened possibly had we been provided with crowbars and 

 suitable tools for wedging apart the blocks of lava, but after sev- 

 eral ineffectual attempts with the tools nature provided we gave 

 up and set a few steel traps at the mouths of some of the bur- 

 rows in order to establish beyond dispute the identity of the 

 species. 



The next morning one or two Black-vented Shearwaters were 

 taken from the traps and one of them, when hauled from the bur- 

 row, gave vent to his feelings in the gasping cry which we had 

 heard every night since our arrival at the island. Two females 

 were found by Mr. Streator in a crevice between two blocks of 

 lava and secured, but no eggs or sign of nest was to be found. 

 From this I thought that perhaps they were through with their 

 nesting but had not yet abandoned the burrows during the day. 

 The specimens prepared by me had evidently bred, and doubtless 

 had at that time well grown young. Burrows were several times 

 found two or three miles from the beach and as high as 4,000 feet 

 altitude, and the mutilated bodies of freshly killed birds were 

 often found where cats had left them. These felines, the descend- 

 ants of domestic animals, introduced by the Mexicans, fairly 

 infest the island and have made very serious inroads on the 

 feathered inhabitants of Guadalupe, threatening some species with 

 ultimate extermination. 



A night was spent in a cypress grove three miles from the 

 water and over 4,000 feet in altitude. Several times during the 

 night I heard Shearwaters chasing each other through the grove 

 and it is not impossible that a few were nesting there. 



Major Chas. E. Bendire writes me that there are four eggs of 

 this species in the National Museum collection, collected in 1873 

 on Santa Barbara Island by Capt. C. M. Scammon. I have never 

 explored the Northern Islands of the Santa Barbara group, but I 



