54 



NESTS AND EGGS OF 



102. Capb Pigeon (From Brebm.) 



103. LEAST PETREL. Halocyptena microsoma Coues. Geog. Dist. — Coast of 

 Lower California. 



A set of one egg of this queer little petrel is in Mr. Crandall's collection; it is 

 pure white in ground color, with a ring of minute black specks around one end and 

 a few scattered over the other; it is short elliptical oval in form, and measures 

 l.OOx.72. It was collected by Mr. A. W. Anthony on San Benito Island, Lower Cali- 

 fornia, July 26th, 1896. The egg was laid on bare rock under a loose slab of stone. 



104. STOEMY PETREL. Procellaria pelmjica Linn. Geog. Dist.— Atlantic 

 ■Ocean; on the American side from the Newfoundland Banks northward. West coast 

 of Africa and coast of Europe. 



The "Mother Carey's Chicken" of the sailors. Common in v?.rious portions of the 

 Northern Atlantic; rarely found near land except when breeding or during severe 

 storms. It is not known to breed on the American coast, but it dpes in various por- 

 tions of the Atlantic coast of Europe. In the Mediterranean it breeds in abundance. 

 OCests commonly on nearly all the islands on the coast of Scotland — the Hebrides, 

 Shetland, Orkneys and Faroes; laying is begun in the latter part of June. Dr. 

 Coues says: "This is the rarest of the three little black white-rumped 'Mother 

 Carey's chickens' of our Atlantic Coast, easily distinguished by its short legs and 

 square tall; Leach's, the most numerous, is also short-legged, but larger and fo 'i- 

 tailed; "Wilson's is intermediate, with square tail, but very long, stilt-like legs, flat 

 clav/s, and a yellow spot on the webs." The single egg is deposited in holes in high 

 cliffs or in burrows made by the birds under boulders lying on the ground. The 



