156 BULLETIN 121, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



OCEANODROMA MELANIA (Bonaparto). 

 BLACK PETBEL. 



HABITS. 



Although this large, dark colored petrel is one of the commonest 

 of the forked-tailed petrels seen oflP the Pacific coast of Mexico and 

 southern California, it remained for a long time unknown and only 

 within recent years have its breeding grounds been discovered. 



Nesting.— Mr. A. B. Howell has sent me the following notes based 

 on his experience with it: 



Melania is, the species of petrel most often seen quartering near, and occa- 

 sionally following ships cruising along the coasts of southern and Lower Cali- 

 fornia, but even so, it is seldom met with. While traveling rather extensively 

 by boat in this region I have seen not more than a dozen individuals, and 

 these were all more than five miles from shore. They were always flying 

 methodically a foot or two above the waves, with slow and regular wing beats. 

 In, the, region covered by the A. O. V. list they are known to nest only on the 

 San Benito and Lqs Coronados Islands, Mexico. They have not been found 

 regularly to occupy their nesting sites in advance of deposition of the eggs 

 as in the case of sooorroensis, though they may do so for several days; nor 

 do they nest in colonies as do the latter, but are scattered over parts of an 

 island wherever the nesting sites seem to be most to their liking. The usual 

 situation chosen is a cranny beneath a boulder or a crack in a cliff, but they 

 will occasionally take possession of an old burrow of the Cassin's auklet. I 

 do not believe however that this form ever excavates its own burrow. On the 

 Coronados in 1910, I found my first fresh egg June 17, and June 17, 1913, A. 

 van Rossem and I found that incubation was slightly further advanced than 

 this. The downy young to all intents are replicas of those of the socorros, 

 except for being a shade larger. All that I know concerning the time of 

 incubation is that it is in excess of 18 days. No nesting material is used. 

 Nine times out of ten, when removed from the egg, the parent will vomit a 

 short stream of orange-colored oil several times repeated, to the distance 

 of four feet or more. She will savagely bite the finger of her captor, but 

 of course is too small to inflict any pain, and will even seize her own wing in 

 her rage. The oil has a pefculiar pungence comparable to no other odor which 

 I know, and by ornithologists, at least, is seldom considered disagreeable. 

 This, by regurgitation, constitutes the food of the nestlings. After death, when 

 in the collecting basket, great care is necessary to k^ep the oil from ooaing 

 out onto the chin and nape, for once it has saturated these parts, it is almost 

 impossible to bring the feathers back to their original condition of smoothness. 



Mr. A. W. Anthony (1896a) found this species nesting on the San 

 Benito Islands about 75 miles off the coast of Lower California and 

 some 20 miles west of Cerros Island, between latitude 28 and 30 

 degrees. He writes : 



The San Benito Islands are small, rocky reefs only, with little vegetation, and 

 being so far offshore are but little resorted to by gulls, cormorants, and simUar 

 species. Cassin's auklets had bred in considerable numbers, as their burrows 

 testified, but at the time of our visit they had all left. Their burrows, however, 

 had been appropriated by later arrivals, and during the four and a half days' 



