May, x9o 4 I THE CONDOR 6 3

shipped in 89." This amount was' increased to 25,ooo dozen in 887, I was in- formed by the head keeper, which was the largest picking for several years past. n 896 Mr. Leerett . Loomis visited the island, and the egg picking had fallen to 7645 dozen? From this it is apparent a great decrease in the laying of the tourres had taken place on South Fatallone, and [ was prepared to note a corres- ponding change in the abundance of tourres, as well as a decrease in gulls and cormorants. June , x9o3, at 2:30 p.m. found me on the wet deck of the staunch little tug "Voltaire," which rolled like a tub as we lay in Fisherman's Bay, facing the old familiar points, but not the endless multitude of sea-fowl I had seen in 887 swarm~ ing from the great colonies on Sugar Loaf, Arch Rock, and other places. A walk among the many breeding spots of the southern portions of the island showed an entire absence of birds, and a tramp over to West End on the following day showed similar conditions in many places. Of one rookery, in particular, of Brandt cormorants (?. fiencillatus) where I often spent hours among the nests, nothing remained. This cormorant community was the largest single colony on the island, and the least disturbed'of any, being on Indian Head, on a high fiat

a Overlaad Mothly, Sept. 89a, P. 24. b California Water Birds, III, p. 357.