The Marbled Mur relet 



tradition has slowly gained credence, and there is an account of an egg, 



now in the collection of Mr. Chas. E. Doe, of Providence, R. I., which was 



taken by Mr. A. H. Durham from 



rocky land some seventy miles north 



of Nome. I am firmly convinced 



that these birds not only nest in or 



upon the sloping sides of western 



mountain ranges, but that they nest 



in some numbers on the coastal 



ranges of California. Here is my 



line of evidence from the beginning: 



At Glacier, on the North Fork of the 



Xooksack River, in the State of 



Washington, and near the foot of 



Mount Baker, having risen before 



daybreak for an early bird-walk, 



on the morning of May nth, 1905, 



I heard voices from an invisible 



party of Marbled Murrelets high 



in air as they proceeded down the 



valley, as though to repair to the 



sea for the day's fishing. It was too 



late in the season for migratory 



flight, and the Murrelets are not 



known to visit interior waters, at 



least in the summer season. 



The Ouileute Indians, of the 

 west Washington coast, claim that 

 the Marbled Murrelet, the Tichaah- 

 lukchtih, does not nest like the other 

 sea-fowl, upon the rocky islets, the 

 Olympiades, but that it colonizes 

 upon some of the higher slopes of the 



Olympic Mountains, where they lay their eggs in burrows; and one of their 

 number claims to have come upon such a colony several years ago while 

 hunting in company with a white man. I have toured the Olympiades 

 three different seasons in Indian canoes, and I found my Indian guides 

 infallible in the identification of sea-birds. The Marbled Murrelet cer- 

 tainly does not nest on any of the islands, where birds of thirteen other 

 species are known to breed. 



Of the Marbled Murrelet as a possible summer resident of California 

 we have only the following scanty references: "We have quite a number 



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MARBLED MURRELETS 



