VoI i906 in ] Bailey, Notes on Birds of Western Mexico. 381 



for the time being, although they still continued to use the rock as a roost- 

 ing place. It was the guano from this countless flock of birds, which 

 probably had been breeding there for centuries, that the men were engaged 

 in collecting. During the day when not fishing they roosted on the sides 

 of the island and when the men left the top to come down to supper at 

 six, they returned to the top of the island to roost and make their so-called 

 nests. Many an evening, as I sat at my skinning table or in front of camp 

 waiting for supper, have I watched these birds as they came in from their 

 day's fishing excursion. From about five o'clock on, as far as the eye 

 could reach, could be seen small flocks of from four to twenty making 

 for the island, and after circling half around it, would generally alight on 

 the top, but a few preferred to roost in the caves in the cliffs of the island. 



Numerous visits to the top of the rock were made at night after speci- 

 mens, and a series of some seven pairs were procured by walking up to 

 them while asleep and selecting individual birds as I chose. I had seen 

 colonies of birds before, but none like this, and the sight certainly made 

 one take a long breath. The whole island surface was literally covered 

 with birds, some with their heads and necks stretched out along their 

 backs sound asleep, some picking up bits of bone, long wing-feathers, 

 grass and small chips of stone and guano to form nests with, while others 

 sat on little piles of heaped-up guano with the neck stretched upward 

 watching the approach of a bird about to alight, as if hoping it might be 

 its mate. They always seemed to roost in pairs, each pair always sepa- 

 rated, as were also the nests, by enough space to be out of reach of 

 their neighbor's sharp beaks. It was truly a weird sight in the starlight, 

 and the low hissing sound from the birds that were awake, with the shad- 

 owy forms floating through space, reminded one of a grave-yard. 



One of the most amusing sights I ever saw was the regular "Mexican 

 cock fight," between males of this species. This combat was, I imag- 

 ined, over the unmated females, or some single male trying to steal a 

 female from another, and started in this fashion: A male in alighting com- 

 menced to strut around, craning his long neck and uttering a low hissing 

 sound, and on coming near to some mated pair, or some other male also 

 trying this mode of courting, would suddenly stop. Both males now 

 squatted low on their short legs, their breast sometimes touching the 

 ground, while their long necks were craned upward in a double bow. No 

 regular cock fight could be more complete or interesting. While they 

 did not use their feet, their long wings and sharp beaks were thrust out 

 at their rival, and occasionally they met with open beaks which became 

 locked together in the struggle. Sometimes one would catch the other 

 by the wing, while he retaliated by getting his adversary by the neck, 

 these cases often proving fatal to one or the other of the combatants. 

 Over all this scene was the ever present smell from the guano, which one 

 must get accustomed to if he would study bird life on an island in the Paci- 

 fic. Birds with broken wings as well as those with little strength were 

 at daybreak quickly put out of the way by the Caracaras, and the gulls 

 made part of their morning meal of these poor unfortunates. 



