Vol. XI I "I Anthony', The Fubnars of Southern California. lOI 



1095 J 



The first birds are usually, I think, in the dark phase of 

 plumage. At any rate my records for the past four seasons 

 show that birds in this plumage are the first to arrive, and the 

 latest spring record, — April 12, San Martin Island, Lower 

 California, — was that of a dark bird. My late spring observa- 

 tions, however, are too scanty to be at all satisfactory, and I 

 should expect to find a few birds at least well off shore as late 

 as April 20. 



Ten miles west of Point Loma, at the entrance of San Diego 

 Bay, is an extensive fishing bank extending parallel with the 

 coast for a distance of several miles. This bank is resorted to 

 during fair weather, from October i to March i, by the San 

 Diego fishermen who obtain large quantities of rock cod there 

 for the markets of southern California. The fishing is all done 

 in from seventy-five to one hundred fathoms of water. I think 

 there is nowhere less than fifty fathoms. There are often large 

 schools of small fish on the surface, which attract large numbers 

 of sea birds, including the Fulmars, and it is along this bank 

 that Fulmars are to be found if anywhere near shore. They 

 are hardly what one would call gregarious, although several are 

 often seen in company fiying along in a loose, straggling flock. 

 More often they are seen in flocks of Piiffinus gavia, one or two 

 in a flock of fifty Shearwaters. 



Unlike the Shearwaters, however, they seldom pass a craft 

 without turning aside to at least make a circuit about it before 

 flying on. If the vessel is a fishing sloop sounding on the banks, 

 the chances are in favor of the Shearwaters being forgotten and 

 allowed to disappear in the distance while the Fulmar settles 

 lightly down on the water within a few yards of the fisherman. 

 The next Fulmar that passes will, after having made the regu- 

 lation circuit, join the first until within a few minutes a flock 

 of six or eight of these most graceful and handsome Petrels 

 have collected, dancing about on the waves as light and buoy- 

 ant as corks. As the lines are hauled up after a successful 

 sound, the long string of often twenty to thirty golden-red fish 

 are seen through the limpid water while still several fathoms 

 in depth, and great excitement prevails. Any Fulmars that have 

 grown uneasy and have started out on the periodical circuit of 



