SHEARWATERS AND FULMARS: Family Procellariidae [ 83 ] 



on the water in extended companies, being at such times often so loath 

 to move that a boat can enter the resting swarms before they take wing 

 ahead of the bow. In common with other birds of their class, they pick 

 most of their food from the surface of the sea and seem to be particularly 

 fond of squid. We have had examinations of three stomachs, collected at 

 various times, that bear out claims of various writers that these birds 

 subsist to a large extent on squid. One stomach was empty except for 

 about 60 pebbles that weighed about 3 ounces; the second contained 

 squids' eyes, bills, and fragments representing about 2.5 individuals; and 

 the third contained 32. squids' mandibles. 



Pink-footed Shearwater: 



Puffinus creatopus Coues 



DESCRIPTION. "Breast and throat white, shading into brownish gray of upper parts 

 and under tail coverts; bill yellowish, feet flesh color. Length: 19, wing 11.50- 

 13.15, bill 1.60-1.70." (Bailey) Eggs: i, white. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds in December and January on Juan Fernandez and 

 Santa Clara Islands off coast of Chile and wanders north to southern Alaska. In 

 Oregon: Regular August and September visitor to coast. 



THE PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATER is the largest of the white-breasted shear- 

 waters that we have so far discovered on the Oregon coast, where it 

 occurs in August and September (our earliest record, July 10, latest, 

 September 2.3) in company with great swarms of Sooty Shearwaters. It 

 is a fairly common species and is seen both as single individuals mixed 

 in the great swarms and as smaller separate flocks of three or four to a 

 dozen birds. It is one of the comparatively few species that breed south 

 of the equator and migrate across it to winter in the northern hemisphere. 

 We have taken numerous specimens since beginning the offshore work in 

 1930, and our publication in the Mutrelet (Gabrielson, Jewett, and Braly 

 1930) is the first definite record for the State. We have taken specimens 

 off Newport and Depoe Bay and have observed individuals off the Clatsop 

 beaches on various occasions. Our experience off the coast has been rather 

 meager so far, and it is probable that whenever sufficient work is done 

 there, many of these species will be found to be much more abundant than 

 our present knowledge indicates. 



In our experience the Pink-footed Shearwater is wilder and more diffi- 

 cult to approach than the Sooty. Its flight is very similar to that of the 

 much more common dusky-colored species, but the wing beat is a trifle 

 slower and more deliberate, somewhat after the fashion of the fulmars. 

 Like all masters of the air, it is able to sail either into or across the wind, 

 apparently for long distances, without any visible alteration in the posi- 

 tion of its wings. 



