Stray Birds at Sea 91 tion of birds. The ship to which 1 belong was towing at the head of the line, and, as it was more than a mile and a half to the stern of the dock, it required clear weather as well as good marine glasses to make sure whether or not there were any birds about any of the ships. The bad weather came to an end at last, and by thorough search I found that only two of the Kit- tiwakes were still with us. The others, I suppose, had attached themselves to passing vessels that we did not see. I suppose this because the birds are so large and seem to require so much food that I doubt if they can subsist themselves at these great distances at sea without the aid of garbage thrown overboard from ships. Daily for two weeks thereafter I saw these two birds and no others: at least it is fair to assume that they were the same two, as it is quite improbable that they should at any time have left and been at once replaced by two others just like them. February 21, we came into the Canary group of islands, where the majestic Peak of Teneriffe dominates the sce- nery, and here I lost sight of my birds, not by their leaving, but by numer- ous sea-birds gathering about the ships and putting a stop to individual identification. Some of these were of the same species as those that had followed us so long and some were smaller, with dark heads like the Bona- parte Gull. The most, however, were Great Black-backed Gulls (Larus marinus), and after we had entered port, at Las Palmas in the Grand Canary island, these large birds were very numerous and the only species we saw, except, of course, Canary birds brought off in cages. BROWN THRASHER ON NEST Photographed from nature by F. M. C., Bloomington, Ind., May 8. 1901
