The Leach Petrels 



ently from birds standing at the mouth of the burrows. The note with 

 its short e's is instantly suggestive of the name, and if the notes of other 

 Petrels resemble this one, I should unhesitatingly say that the name is 

 imitative, and that the classic explanation of "Little Peter walking upon 

 the waves" is, like so many other philological traditions, more ingenious 

 than probable. 



Concerning the number of birds in this colony it was difficult to form 

 a judgment. We explored fifty nests, representing a hundred birds, in the 

 least populous portion of the colony; yet the area affected was no sensible 

 portion of the whole, certainly not a hundredth, probably not a five-hun- 

 dredth part. Based upon this estimate alone, the number of resident birds 

 would run from ten to fifty thousand, and it might easily be much greater. 

 I think the birds in the air simply represented the newcomers, who took a 

 few turns about the island as they came in from the ocean, preparatory to 

 settling down to the business of feeding their mates. Certainly the major- 

 ity of the birds were at all times below the ground; while the number in 

 transition may be judged by the fact that at one o'clock, when I left the 

 bed and groped about in the darkness on hands and knees, I picked up 

 birds both from the ground and the grass. 



At four o'clock the volume of sound had subsided, and not above a 

 dozen flitting forms were seen ; while at six o'clock there was no slightest 

 sign to betray the presence of the sleeping multitude. 



In the summer of 1910 another extensive colony of these Petrels was 

 discovered near La Push, by the sense of smell, a favoring breeze having 

 brought a characteristic whiff ashore from Kwahllalahtahl, half a mile 

 away. This pungent, penetrating odor of the petrel, due no doubt to the 

 peculiar oil distilled from its food, is very grateful to the nostrils of the 

 veteran. The island thus discovered and promptly explored was suffering 

 from the ravages of a Peale's Falcon (Falco peregrinus pealei), which had a 

 nest midway of a neighboring rock. The ground about the petrel burrows 

 was strewn with wings, and we judged that the royal marauder had to get 

 out very early in the morning to accomplish such destruction. 



On another islet, Carroll, we found a few petrels nesting in the shade 

 of the spruce-crowned summit, along with the more abundant Cassin 

 Auklets. The burrows here were shorter, and the egg was placed on a 

 luxurious cushion of spruce-twigs and moss — altogether different from the 

 scanty lining of grass, or the bare ground, which is customary in petrel 

 burrows. Perhaps there is an incipient subspecies here, 0. leucorhoa 

 nidificans. 



No. 413c Socorro Petrel 



A. O. U. No. 108. 1. Oceanodroma leucorhoa socorroensis Townsend. 

 Description. — Adult: General plumage sooty black, blacker and softly lustrous 



2021 



