Page:Condor12(6).djvu/7

 Nos,., 1910 NOTES FROM LOS CORONADOS ISLANDS 185 be that when the nest has once been disturbed, the murrelets remove their young to a place of safety as soon as they gain a little strength; but this does not explain away the fact that I failed to discover any new nests that contained young beyond this age, which seems strange, as I made an especially diligent search for them. I know that at least one observer has seen murrelets that were practically full grown, but still unable to fly, swimming about in the ocean with their parents at some distance from land, but could it be possible that the old birds would remove their little ones to the water when they are several days old, as is the case with wood ducks for instance? It appears to me that it would be impossible for mur- relets of this tender age to survive the occasional heavy seas if this were the case, and yet this seems to be the only possible explanation. The old birds not engaged in incubation spend the entire day at sea and are not to be seen near the islands. These return after dark, when their mates leave Fig. 57. YOUNG XANTUS MURRELET BELOW' NESTING BURROW for the feediug grouuds, and iu their turus, reseek the burrows just before the first gray lights of morning. From the contents of their stomachs, it is evident that they feed upon all kinds of small sea life, including crustaceans, and Mr. Osburn has found some of them to contain a certain green sea-weed, for which, as none of it is found floating at the surface, they must dive; practically all of their food is obtained in this manner anyway. Their notes, consisting of a sharp twittering, are to be heard most frequently after midnight, when apparently they begin making their way into the shallow water very near the island, preparatory to the general movement at dawn. When feeding they are usually found in lone pairs at this time of year, altho I have occas- ionally seen six or eight individuals in one flock, where perhaps there was an espec- ially abundant supply of food. It is odd, too, that thruout the nesting season while one of a pair is always incubating, just two birds are feeding together, but perhaps the lonely males are fond of a little flirting on the side. One finds that the birds