THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



171 



CAUGHT IN THE ACT. 



C. BARLOW, Robbing a Gull's Kest, Farallon Island (Published without permission.) 



Nesting of the Ashy Petrel. 



" There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, 

 There is a rapture on the lonely shore, 

 There is society where none intrudes. 

 By the deep sea, and music in its roar." 



SUCH is the feeling of any enthusiastic 

 naturalist who has sojourned among 

 the myriads of sea birds on the won- 

 derful Farallon Islands, and watched 

 thoughtfully the ceaseless beating of the 

 ocean's swell upon its rock-bound shores. 



From the hoarsely croaking Gull down to 

 the melodious little Rock Wren {Salpindes 

 obsoletiis), the Ashy Petrel (^Oceanodroma 

 homochroa) is perhaps the least noticeable of 

 the motley congregation of sea fowl that call 

 the rocky cliflFs their home. The discovery 

 of this bird on the island was necessarily 

 difficult and at once fortunate, for being 

 noctural in its habits, and not usually nest- 

 ing in places inhabited by other birds, it 

 probably was discovered by accident. That 

 it is at the present day a rare bird cannot 

 be doubted, for authorities to date agree in 

 restricting its habitat to the Farallon 



Islands, and when it is remembered that 

 the only island accessible is the South 

 Farallon, with an area of about half a 

 square mile, its rarity is apparent* 



The Petrel is one of those birds made 

 beautiful in the eyes of the Ornithologist, 

 by its rarity if for no other reason. The 

 structure of the Petrel is shown in the 

 accompanying illustration from a photo- 

 graph of a mounted specimen in my collec- 

 tion. The plumage is a plumbeous below, 

 with wings and tail black. The greater 

 wing coverts approach a grayish-brown at 

 the extremities (as stated by Coues) as a 

 rule, but in some specimens before me the 

 outer edge is fringed with a decided white. 

 There are three toes, all in front with a 

 very short stiff spur behind. The feet are 

 of course webbed. 



The food of the Petrel necessarily con- 

 sists of fish or small shell-fish, with pos- 

 sibly a little marine algae by way of desert, 

 but unfortunately no stomachs were exam- 

 ined. 



In July 1892 I visited the Farallons and 



