ZooL.— Vol. II.] LOOMIS— CALIFORNIA WATER BIRDS. 307 



of Audubon's Shearwater^ of the Atlantic.^ Whether any 

 Black-vented Shearwaters cross the equator and enter the 

 Southern Hemisphere is yet to be determined, the geo- 

 graphic distribution of the species being but imperfectly 

 defined. 



In brief, it is held that the hosts of Black-vented Shear- 

 waters off Monterey are simply visitors on the high sea like 

 the Dark-bodied Shearwaters, although having a fly-line 

 that seemingly falls short of the Tropic of Capricorn.^ 



The Black-footed Albatross appears to be an additional 

 example of northward migration from infratemperate regions 

 after reproduction. It is reported as breeding on Gaspar 

 Rico,* Laysan and adjacent islets,^ and on the Volcano 

 Islands,^ and is common off middle California in summer,^ 

 but apparently does not occur there during the colder 

 months of the year, for only Short-tailed Albatrosses were 

 seen in midwinter in the vicinity of Monterey.^ Further, 

 specimens of both sexes from that locality in May and June, 

 1897, and August, 1894, uniformly had minute reproductive 

 organs, witnessing that they were not breeding birds. 



Guidance by Physical Phenomena. 



The behavior of the Shearwaters and Northern Phala- 

 ropes during fogs in the summer of 1894,^ ^"^^ ^^ ^he 



1 Bahamas (H. Bryant, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. VII, p. 132). 

 Bermudas (Reid, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 25, p. 274). 



2 For positive information concerning the breeding of the Black-vented Shearwater, 

 we are indebted to Mr. A. W. Anthony ('Auk,' Vol. XIII, p. 225), whose excellent work 

 on the water birds of the coast of Southern California and adjacent Mexico is well 

 known. 



IJven if the breeding range of this Shearwater extended further north than the sub- 

 tropics, the destination of the Monterey transients might nevertheless be far to the 

 southward, for in every migratory species some individuals journey to nesting homes 

 beyond those of others; e. g., the Yellow Warblers of the Arctic coast to homes further 

 north than the Yellow Warblers of the sunny mountain valleys of the Carolinas. 



3 If it should prove that the Black-vented Shearwater breeds south as well as north 

 of the equator, its presence on the North Pacific in higher latitudes than its breeding 

 range may possibly be due in part to migration from the Southern Hemisphere, and not 

 solely to retrograde movement from the subtropics or tropics. 



4Dall, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., Vol. V, p. 277. 



5 Rothschild, 'Avifauna of Laysan,' p. 55. ^ • 



BSeebohm, 'Ibis,' 6th Ser., Vol. Ill, p. 191. 



7 Calif. W. B. No. Ill, p. 353 ; etc. 



8 Ibid., No. II, p. 25. 



*Ibid., No. I, pp. 191, 201, 202, 203. 



