LIFE HISTORIES OF NOKTH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS. 99 



As they remove the sand they lie first on one side and work a foot and then 

 shift to the other. One is sometimes startled, while standing quietly, among 

 the bushes, by being suddenly beset with little showers of sand, which on closer 

 inspection are found to originate with some shearwater toiling into the earth. 

 In their search for nesting sites they do not hesitate to wedge themselves into 

 all sorts of places, apparently without thought of escape, but we never found 

 any birds actually trapped. The burrows enter the ground at a slant and then 

 become horizontal. They are at least 3 feet long and often very much deeper. 

 Rarely ~they are only about 2 feet, and these are new, while the longer ones 

 are the older, having been dug out by successive tenants from year to year. 

 The birds had not yet begun to lay, and do not till early in June, according 

 to the testimony of Mr. Schlemmer. 



Eggs. — ^The single egg of the wedge-tailed shearwater is elongate 

 ovate in shape and pure white in color ; the shell is smooth, but not 

 glossy. The measurements of 25 eggs, in various collections, average 

 63 by 41.5 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 

 68.5 by 43.5, 66 by 44.5, 58.4 by 41.5, and 59.4 by 38.5 millimeters. 



Plumages. — Major Meyer describes the downy young as " covered 

 with a soft whitish down." Professor Loomis (1918) quotes Mr. 

 W. A.- Bryan as calling it " a smoky lilac-gray over the back and 

 top of the head, and very light pearl gray on the under parts, 

 darkest on the abdomen." 



I doubt if any specimens of this species in later immature plum- 

 ages have ever been collected. There are, apparently, two widely 

 different color phases of this species, with a puzzling series of inter- 

 grades, which have led to some confusion in nomenclature. The 

 dark phase, which is wholly dark sooty brown, has been described 

 as a distinct species, Puffinus kmidseni; it also closely resembles 

 another so-called species, Pwffinus cMororhynchus, but there does 

 not seem to be any well established evidence of intergradation with 

 the latter. Mr. Godman (1907) has given a very clear statement of 

 the relationship and status of the two species, and I would refer 

 the reader to what he has to say about both cuneatus and cMofo- 

 rhynchus. Mr. Anthony says that, about San Benedicto Island, 

 " both phases were seen, the sooty plumage outnumbering the light- 

 bellied form about two to one. In a series of about 75 specimens all 

 manner of intergrades can be found, from those with pure white 

 lower parts, including under wing-coverts, to those having gray and 

 sooty brown plumage. In the upper surface there is very little 

 variation." 



Faod. — ^Doctor Fisher (1906) states that the "stomachs of these 

 birds contained the hard parts of small cephalopods (squid, octopus, 

 and the like)." This is all we know about its food. 



Behavior. — Keferring to the flight of the wedge-tailed shearwater, 



Mr. Anthony (1900), writes: 



About sunset the birds from the island began to seek the water, meeting a 

 similar tide moving in from the sea. They mostly centered about the south 



