186 University of California Publications in Zoology. {Vous 
face, finely washed along the sides and across the chest with sepia 
scalings. Both mandibles are tipped with caleareous nodules. 
Brachyramphus brevirostris (Vigors). Kittlitz Murrelet. 
One of the surprising results of the 1907 Alexander Expe- 
dition’s explorations was the discovery of large numbers of the 
Kittlitz murrelet on the waters of Glacier Bay. Only one speci- 
men was previously known from east of Unalaska, and that one 
from off the Kenai Peninsula. In faet the species on the Amer- 
ican side, at least, has been known only from the capture of a 
few seattering individuals. 
I quote Dixon’s notes verbatim: ‘‘We saw at least five hun- 
dred of these gray murrelets in one flock. They were feeding 
in the channels among the numerous islands that lie near the 
mouth of the bay. Their principal diet was a slippery, slug-like 
animal about an inch long. A number of immature birds «ere 
seen, but they formed only a small proportion of the whole. 
These murrelets get off the water far more rapidly than do the 
marbled murrelets. They seem to come up flying. Their flight 
is much swifter than the other murrelets and they were much 
wilder. A large flock started by us and we began shooting. 
Sometimes we would drop a bird and all the rest of the flock 
would settle right down so that we thought we had killed the 
whole bunch until we came to pick them up.’’ 
According to Littlejohn’s notebook, nearly all the Kittlitz 
murrelets seen were paired off; yet no individuals taken (June 
28 to July 17) showed signs of immediate breeding. Although 
looked for everywhere, no clue was obtained as to the location 
of a breeding ground. It may have been that they had nested 
earlier in the season; but the failure of the collectors to secure 
young (although Dixon, as above noted, thought he saw ‘‘imma- 
ture birds’’) makes the problem all the more puzzling. 
The remarkable series of thirty-eight skins of this rare species 
(Nos. 180, 191-227), taken. between June 28 and July 17, shows 
much variation in the amount of the ventral transverse, dusky 
vermiculation. Some specimens have the whole belly region pos- 
terior to the chest clear white; others are entirely covered ven- 
trally with the dusky-tipped cream-buff-tinted feathers, though 
