CALIFORNIA WATER BIRDS. 1 79 



side Laboratory by two o'clock. A trip was made, June 

 25th, by land, to Carmel. Bay, where I visited a Cormor- 

 ant rookery on a rocky islet at the extremity of Pt. Car- 

 mel, or Pt. Lobos, as it is locally known. 



EARLY SOUTHWARD MIGRATIONS. 



As I have already published* some account of the 

 migrations witnessed during the summer of 1892, m}^ 

 present remarks will be restricted chiefly to the summer 

 of 1894. 



The sea offers peculiarly favorable opportunities for 

 studying migratory movements. On land much of migra- 

 tion readily escapes observation. Often only the birds 

 that stop in a locality are noted. The greater perils and 

 the natural and other obstructions necessitate a greater 

 elevation of flight. Further, migration over the ocean 

 continues during the daytime to an extent not usualy ob- 

 served on land, resembling, perhaps, more the night 

 migration of land birds. The vegetation of the land also 

 affords means of concealment, and stragglers escape 

 notice that would readily be seen on the water. 



The occurrence of stragglers on isolated islets, as 

 American birds on Heligoland (see Seebohm, "Ibis," 6th 

 ser., vol. iv, pp. 1-32) or of the Catbird on the Faral- 

 lones (Townsend, "Auk," vol. ii, p. 215), illustrate in 

 another way the favorableness of the sea for the study of 

 migration. It is not to be supposed that estrays visit such 

 islets more frequently than they do the adjacent mainland. 

 Over miles of water they find but a single resting place, 

 so the chances of meeting them are many, but on the 

 mainland in an area of equal extent, where an}?^ spot 

 may be a resting place, the chances of seeing them are 

 extremely few. Some years ago in upper South Caro- 



* " The Auk," vol. xi, pp. 27, 28, 29, 30, 95-98. 



