﻿Stray Birds at Sea 



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tion of birds. The ship to which 1 belong was towing at the head of the 

 line, and, as it was more than a mile and a half to the stern of the dock, it 

 required clear weather as well as good marine glasses to make sure whether 

 or not there were any birds about any of the ships. The bad weather came 

 to an end at last, and by thorough search I found that only two of the Kit- 

 tiwakes were still with us. The others, I suppose, had attached themselves 

 to passing vessels that we did not see. I suppose this because the birds are 

 so large and seem to require so much food that I doubt if they can subsist 

 themselves at these great distances at sea without the aid of garbage thrown 

 overboard from ships. 



Daily for two weeks thereafter I saw these two birds and no others: 

 at least it is fair to assume that they were the same two, as it is quite 

 improbable that they should at any time have left and been at once replaced 

 by two others just like them. February 21, we came into the Canary 

 group of islands, where the majestic Peak of Teneriffe dominates the sce- 

 nery, and here I lost sight of my birds, not by their leaving, but by numer- 

 ous sea-birds gathering about the ships and putting a stop to individual 

 identification. Some of these were of the same species as those that had 

 followed us so long and some were smaller, with dark heads like the Bona- 

 parte Gull. The most, however, were Great Black-backed Gulls (Larus 

 marinus), and after we had entered port, at Las Palmas in the Grand 

 Canary island, these large birds were very numerous and the only species 

 we saw, except, of course, Canary birds brought off in cages. 



BROWN THRASHER ON NEST 

 Photographed from nature by F. M. C., Bloomington, Ind., May 8. 1901 



