36 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



flock seemingly moved by one impulse as they wheel and circle 

 swiftly back and forth; when alighting they hold their long 

 wings high over their backs for a few seconds until all have 

 settled down, facing usually in one direction, into the wind. 

 Their harsh, nasal notes, variously described as a honking, 

 baying, or "yapping," are uttered while the birds are on the 

 wing. 



The species is more or less nocturnal in habit, as evidenced 

 by the testimony of Audubon and many other observers, 

 Outsell, who observed it on Petit Bois Island, says: "Long 

 after dark may be heard the 'honking' of this bird as it fol- 

 lows the shoreline; if a fire be built on shore, the bird may 

 be seen as it passes, with its bill's tip in the water." He states, 

 also, that it carries fish to its young crosswise in the bill. 

 The newly hatched young, he says, run at considerable speed, 

 then squat motionless on the sand. 



Food habits. — Ten stomachs of the skimmer collected in 

 Alabama have been examined. Six of them were empty and 

 the others contained remains of small fishes. Nuttall states 

 that the bird consumes small crabs and other crustaceans and 

 moUusks.** 



FULMARS, SHEARWATERS, AND PETRELS: Family Hydrobatidae.J 



SOOTY SHEARWATER: Puffimis grisem (Gmelin). 



State records. — The sooty shearwater probably occurs reg- 

 ularly in the Gulf of Mexico, but its occurrence in Alabama 

 is purely accidental. The only record is that of a bird found 

 in a garden at Attalla, after a heavy storm, on May 4, 1898. 

 It was completely exhausted and died during the day. The 

 specimen was identified by Edgar Magness, who published 

 a note on the occurrence in The Osprey.* The shearwaters 

 are ocean wanderers and their occurrence on land is of course 

 purely accidental. 



••Nuttttll, Tho3., Manual ornith.. water birds, pp. 264-266, 1831. 



^Procellariidae of the A. O. U. Check-list; for change of name see The Auk, vol. 36, 

 276, 1919. 

 •Magness, Edgar, The Osprey, vol. 3, p. 46. 1898. 



