LEAST PETREL 



ally with longer legs. Their plumage is 

 dusky, sometimes relieved by areas of white. 

 They are perhaps the most perfectly oceanic 

 of all birds, keeping far out at sea, flitting 

 close to the tops of the waves, and rarely 

 approaching land except to breed or when 

 blown in by storms. Like the shearwaters, 

 they nest in burrows in the ground or in 

 crevices, laying only one or two eggs. 



i. Halocyptena microsoma Coues 

 Least Petrel 



Sexes alike. Length, 140 mm. (5.50 in.); 

 tail, 50 mm. (2.00 in.). General color brownish 

 black, browner below. Bill and feet black. 



A very small petrel with no white in the 

 plumage, found on the Pacific coast from Lower 

 California to Ecuador. One flew aboard the 

 Albatross and was captured in the Bay of Panama 

 in 1888. "Known to breed only on San Benito 

 Island off the Pacific coast of Lower California." 

 Bent, "Life Histories of North American Petrels 

 and Pelicans and their Allies," Bull. 121, Nat. 

 Mus., p. 125. 



2. Oceanodroma melania (Bonaparte) 

 Black Petrel 



Sexes alike. Length 229 mm. (9.00 in.); 

 tail, 1 02 mm. (4.00 in.). Plumage sooty brown 

 above, more smoky below and grayer on wing 



