382 Bailey, Notes on Birds of Western Mexico. [oct* 



What a sight this must form when all have eggs or young! Now as 

 the men were gathering the guano from all over the top of the rock, and 

 had, on their arrival, driven off the birds and taken their eggs, and were 

 still making a systematic search every morning for fresh eggs for eating, 

 the colony had been, for the time being, driven from their old nesting 

 place, and few birds had laid during my visit of three weeks on the rock. 

 It was this breaking up of their old-time home that led me to think that 

 some of the birds had migrated to Isabella Island, some thirty miles 

 away, as the only suitable near-by place left to them as a breeding place. 

 As the men expected to be through with the guano gathering by the 

 first of June, possibly the birds remained around the rock and bred later 

 on. 1 



11. Phalacrocorax mexicanus. Mexican Cormorant. — Numbers 

 of cormorants that I took to be of this species were seen off the rancho, 

 fishing near the surf, and were found to have bred at Tepic previous to 

 my visit there, and also in the lagoons back of San Bias. 



12. Pelecanus calif ornicus. California Brown Pelican. — These 

 birds were common at San Bias where they sat and fished from the rocky 

 breakwater forming part of the harbor entrance. They were also common 

 off the beach in front of the rancho, often coming on to the beach and 

 seemingly extracting food from the foam cast up by the waves. A few 

 pairs were seen while I was on White Rock, and they probably bred on 

 Cleofa Island later on, as they roosted there. Two pairs were seen while 

 on Isabella Island but none were found breeding. I am inclined to think 

 they came here to fish from the mainland, near the mouth of the Santi- 

 ago River, where, I was told, there was a large breeding colony. 



13. Fregata aquila. Man-o'-War Bird. — This bird I found com- 

 mon everywhere along the coast and islands, in all cases indulging in 

 their well known habit of harassing the boobies to obtain their supply 

 of food. From what I was told by the natives, the birds around San 

 Bias bred on the bushes in a lagoon some miles down the coast, while I 

 found them breeding in great numbers on Isabella Island. The nests on 

 the island were placed on the top of the bushes or on crotches of limbs, 

 the nests being a loosely made platform of sticks and twigs, with generally 

 a few straws or grasses on the inner surface. In some cases the nests 

 were not more than from eighteen inches to two feet above the ground, 

 as on the west side of the island where the bushes are low and stunted, 

 while on the south and eastern sides they were sometimes placed as high 

 as twelve and fifteen feet above ground, the bushes and scrubby trees 

 here permitting of it. At the time of my visit the majority of these birds 

 had eggs, one being a complete set. A few young birds were, however, 

 found on the western side of the island, and it did not take the hot sun 



1 Aug. 14, 1905. Mr. Beermaker, who has just arrived in Los Angeles, informs 

 me that the boobies did not lay again while the men remained on White Rock. 



