Anthon'S', The Fulmars of Southern California. ^"^j 



Dr. Stejneger says of the two phases of gliipischa on the 

 Commander Islands (Bull. 29, U. S. Nat. Mus.) : "The young 

 birds of the white forms have the head and greater part of the 

 lower surface suffused with light gray, yet they can never be 

 mistaken for the dark ones, and I doubt very much if any inter- 

 gradation between the futly matured adults of the two forms or 

 phases can be proven. I have observed thousands and tens of 

 thousands of the dark forms breeding, not finding a single one 

 perceptibly lighter, although a small colony of the white form was 

 breeding in the neighborhood but separate from the dark ones, 

 nor were any of the light phase perceptibly darker than usual, and 

 in no case were white and dark birds paired together." 



There are periods when nearly all of the Fulmars found off this 

 coast are of the same phase, but at times, when both light and 

 dark birds are found, they are much more apt to separate than to 

 flock together. If a flock of six or eight are seen, and I have 

 seldom seen more than that together, they are usually all of one 

 phase. The young of the light birds are easily distinguished at a 

 distance, the plumage being much lighter than the dark plumage 

 of glupischa or columha, but the young of the dark phase are in no 

 way distinguishable from the adults by their plumage. A fully 

 adult columba in the dark plumage, taken Oct. 16, shows a mottled 

 condition caused by the lighter tips of the old feathers scattered 

 through the fresh plumage. Several of my specimens have parts 

 of the nasal plate loose and in a condition to be easily removed, 

 suggesting that possibly these plates are to some extent deciduous. 

 The material is not sulficient, however, to make it safe to venture 

 an opinion. From the series of birds in the light phase I am of 

 the opinion that three years at least must elapse before they reach 

 the perfect adult plumage. The young of the first year are easily 

 distinguished even at a distance, but those which I take to be two 

 years old are not so easily separated. The mantle, however, is 

 slightly darker, and the wedge on the inner webs of the primaries 

 is grayish instead of pure white as in the adult, and its outline is 

 not so sharply defined. The tertials are grayish-white in the 

 young birds of two years and pure white in the adults. Dr. 

 Stejneger (Bull. 29, U. S. Nat. Mus.) gives the color of the bill of 

 a winter specimen of glupischa, taken off Bering Island, as yellow 



