CALIFORNIA WATER BIRDS. 215 



Individuals began to moult as early as June. Most of 

 the mottled-headed birds of the first part of August had 

 only partially grown tails. Many of them appeared to be 

 fork-tailed, two of the old outer feathers remaining. 



Xema sabinii. Sabine's Gull. — An adult (apparently 

 a male) and a female bird of the year were obtained Au- 

 gust 23d. They were decoyed within range with dead 

 Gulls. In the adult, some white feathers show in the 

 plumbeous of the head and upper part of the neck. 

 Otherwise it appears to retain the full summer plumage. 

 Mr. Bryant has recorded a previous specimen from Cal- 

 ifornia in "Zoe," vol. iii, p. 165. This specimen is No. 

 379 of the collection of the California Academy of Sci- 

 ences. It is a bird of the year, and is labelled "San 

 Francisco Bay, Cal., Oct. (10?), 1889;" "From E. F. 

 Lorquin." 



Sterna paradisaea. Arctic Tern. — Two females were 

 taken — one, iVugust 22d, the other, August 27th. The 

 former is apparently in summer plumage, but the latter has 

 white mixed with the black on the top of the head. 



Diomedea nigripes. Black-footed Albatross. — On 

 the I St of August two Black-footed Albatrosses were se- 

 cured about eight miles north of the buoy. These were 

 the first observed. During the rest of my sojourn indi- 

 viduals were seen every few days, one of them within 

 half a mile of the buoy. They were very unsuspicious. 

 One bird, sighting the boat a long way off, came directly 

 toward us and alighted on the water about a hundred 

 yards away. It sat there motionless until dispatched at 

 very short range. Another, quite a distance off, changed 

 its course immediately when a couple of Gulls were tossed 

 into the air to attract it, and headed in a bee-line for the 

 boat, only stopping in its career when cut down, scarcely 

 fifty feet away. 



