Identifier: birdnotesafielde00keel (find matches)
Title: Bird notes afield; essays on the birds of the Pacific coast with a field check list
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Keeler, Charles Augustus, 1871-1937
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: San Franciso and New York, P. Elder and company
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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ng the power of flight, justas the great auk lost it, in order to gain greater freedom inswimming under water. Its difficulty in rising from the sur-face of the wave and its habit of awkwardly falling back intoit would seem to argue in favor of this view, despite its swiftflight in a strong wind. In all this digression it must not be forgotten that thebreeze was still blowing and our little craft tumbling about asit approached the bar of the Golden Gate. An occasionalBrandts cormorant flapped past, its long neck stretched farahead of the clumsy, black body, as if trying its best to partcompany with so slow a companion. When a little way out atsea, we noticed, slightly isolated from the mainland, a largerock completely whitened with the guano of this bird, a factindicating the presence of a large rookery. The wind, which had been uncomfortably brisk inside thebay, left us almost entirely after we were well off the shore,and we were soon rolling aimlessly on the broad ocean swells, (38)
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MURRES ON THEIR NESTING-GROUND A TRIP TO THE FARALLONES with only now and then a puff of air to make the sails flap.TTius we spent the rest of the day, the great glassy undulatingsurface of the sea rocking us about upon the very threshold ofour journey, with the bleak coast line visible far behind us—bold, bare and black in hue, save for some yellow patches ofdead grass—and the Farallones lost in the mist at sea. Thesun went down behind them and out of the west came thecold, pervasive fog, folding us in its mantle of utter darkness.Ships were near, becalmed in like manner. At intervals theirfog-horns blew, and our captain responded upon a dismal tinhorn. One ship drew so close that we could hear the criesof the men as they tugged at the ropes, the voice of the matecalling orders, and the noise of the flapping sails. We went supperless to bed, our stomachs not admitting ofexperiments with the coarse fare of the fishermen, and lay inour close, damp quarters in an uneasy sleep. At da

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