Vot. II, Pr. 11] LOOMIS—A REVIEW OF THE TUBINARES 143 
cliffs, filling the air for half a mile, as high as the highest cliff, 
900 feet. Their flight was flitting, bat-like, with an occasional 
sail. The whole concourse, with individual exceptions, moved 
as if it were a liquid, being stirred in various places. Now and 
then one uttered a low cat-like call. They were flying so thick 
and fast that they often bumped into one another. They did 
not light on the water and appeared to be doing nothing. Es- 
pecially when we gave their cat-call or killed some, they came 
close to the boat, so close that we got all the specimens we 
wanted by batting them with the oar. The white-breasted 
ones were a very small proportion of the total number. As 
dusk came on their flight extended to their burrows high on the 
cliffs, but as night fell they flew near the water and spread out. 
May 17. I climbed the main peak of the island, 900 feet in 
height. It is a cinder cone, composed entirely of powdery 
pumice caked by water and cut with a hundred steep, deep 
gorges, radiating from the summit on most sides, and broken 
by a cliff on the southeast. The whole cone was honeycombed 
with the burrows of these shearwaters and as I walked over it 
I heard their growls, which sounded like a combination of the 
north wind blowing through a knot hole, the wild cat’s growl, 
and the screech owl’s call. Every few steps I sank thigh deep 
into the burrows, raising a choking and blinding dust. A cloud 
of dust was always about the cone when the wind blew. At the 
mouths of the burrows the hardened ash was weatherworn into 
pillars, cupolas, terraces, giving to the rookery an appearance 
very much like the houses of cliff-dwellers. There were run- 
ways leading to each burrow marked with the birds’ tracks. 
The direction of the tracks at the mouth often showed whether 
the birds were at home or abroad. If a cat-moaning is heard, 
two birds will be found in the burrow. A strong odor of musk 
was always apparent. The burrows extended in a horizontal 
direction, and were sometimes eight by seven inches at the 
opening and from four to eight feet in length, with a larger 
nesting cavity at the farther end. They were often four or 
five feet below the surface and usually had a slight turn. Some 
had a little grass or twigs in them. Few birds were seen on the 
cone outside the burrows. Occasionally one came in and sailed 
around, over and back, keeping close to the surface; then it 
