16 
pavlovsk, July 15; one off cape Shipunski, August 1. The white birds 
were in nearly all cases far scattered, lone individuals. It is realized that 
the foregoing can throw little light on the validity of this doubtful species. 
The observations are given for what they may be worth. 
Pufiinus tenuirostris (Temminck). Slender-billed Shearwater 
The shearwaters were others of those aggravating sea-birds that had to 
be taken largely on faith. Some small Tubinares, quite certainly shear- 
waters, that were like a small edition of a whitish fulmar, were seen on two 
occasions on the Asiatic side: on April 29, just south of Petropavlovsk, 
Kamchatka, and on July 11 off the north end of Hokkaido island, once in 
Bering sea north of Adak island, and again, August 12, west of Prince 
Rupert. What these light-coloured shearwaters were could be only con- 
jecture. 
When, on August 5, northeast of Attu island, three hundred or more 
blackish shearwaters came skimming the grey waves, it seemed that a 
change of fortune had arrived, but the change did not eventuate. Greater 
or lesser numbers, usually in far scattered flocks, were met daily from 
August 5 to 15, and though twice at least the ship drove through ten 
thousand of them, not a single specimen could be secured to decide whether 
only the Slender-billed was represented, or only the Sooty, or both. Several 
were shot from the rail, but always escaped the scoop-net. The centre of 
abundance for these blackish wanderers was Unalaska island. Approaching 
cape Cheerful, August 7, the ship passed through a far-spread congregation, 
the extent of which could not be determined. Two days later, on leaving 
Unalaska, another vast gathering of the birds was met in Akutan pass. 
From this date a few were seen almost daily and they were last seen on the 
evening of August 15 just off the islands guarding the harbour of Prince 
Kupert. Doubtless these congregations of shearwaters were on their 
migration southward. 
Oceanodroma furcata (Gmelin). Forked-tailed Petrel 
From July 14, off Paramushir island, until the Thiepval reached Prince 
Rupert, this little “sea swallow’' was seen almost daily out at sea. Only 
two large congregations were noted, one off Copper island, August 4, and 
another near the Bogoslofs, August 7. Usually the bird was a lonely wan- 
derer. The journal, July 14, records: “The Fork-tailed Petrels were the 
feature of the day. In far scattered flight; most numerous in the windy 
afternoon when we passed through some flocks where four and five could 
be counted at a time. They have a swift, darting flight and the fulmar’s 
clever knack of slipping along with stiff wings in the trough of the waves, 
dodging the big ones and darting through the watery lanes and hollows. 
Their flight against a stiff breeze was estimated at about 20 miles an hour, 
but sometimes it was much less. Often they alighted on the water and 
appeared to feed. When about to take off they had the cunning habit of 
keeping the wings extended so that the breeze lifted the weight of the body 
and the bird planed off the slopes of the w T aves. They apparently could 
rise merely by letting the wind lift them. In flight they have the same 
outline as the fulmar — thick-headed, short-necked, generally “dumpy” in 
silhouette. In sunlight the plumage seemed quite whitish, whereas in even- 
ing light it appeared dark grey by comparison. The blackish bill — which 
in flight is pointed downward at a considerable angle from the horizontal, 
