CALIFORNIA WATER BIRDS. 205 



was surprised to find them within a few hundred yards of 

 the beach near the Seaside Laboratory, flying out toward 

 Pt. Pinos. Their large size and light-colored backs soon 

 made it apparent that they were not Northern, but Red 

 Phalaropes. At the buoy they were seen to turn Pt. Pinos 

 and head south in the manner observed all along in other 

 migrants. The majority were in small flocks. Some in- 

 dividuals, however, were migrating alone. Toward noon 

 the flight began to subside, but none apparently stopped 

 on the water. There was a greater flight of Northern 

 Phalaropes. It continued without abatement as long as 

 I was out on the water. Few of them came nearer 

 to Pt. Pinos than half a mile. Four solitary Black-vented 

 Shearwaters and one couple passed the boat, as it was 

 stationed near the buoy, on their way down the coast. 

 Their advent, seemingly portending the beginning of a 

 migration later than that of their dark-bodied congener, 

 was not wholly unexpected, for one was captured August 

 10, 1892. There was some movement in Dark-bodied 

 Shearwaters. Its inner edge reached the buoy. A sec- 

 ond Arctic Tern and two California Gulls were taken. 

 The latter species was apparently becoming common. 

 Several Surf Birds, proceeding southward, were seen out 

 on the ocean near the buoy. Passing individuals had 

 been observed at different times along since the 4th. 



Few white-headed Western Gulls were seen toward the 

 close of the month. Birds of the year and older imma- 

 ture ones, however, were numerous. The same remarks 

 apply about as well to Heermann's Gull, for dark birds 

 were almost the only ones met with toward the end of my 

 stay. The two species seemed to become equal again in 

 numbers at the last. 



It was not satisfactorily ascertained whether any migra- 

 tion occurred in the Brandt's Cormorants breeding in the 



