An Ancient Murrelet Goes Island
An Ancient Murrelet Goes Inland.--Gn the afternoon of November 18, 1950, Jim Long, a railroad employee, found a “strange” bird on the ground between the railroad tracks near the roundhouse of the Oregon Trunk Railroad in the suburbs of Bend, Deschutes County, Oregon. I received this bird, very much alive, on the morning of November 19; however, it died later that day. Much to my surprise it proved to be an adult female Ancient Murrelet (Syntkliborampkus antiquus). It was very fat and in fine early winter plumage. The stomach was entirely empty.
The reason for the occurrence of this pelagic species so far from the sea, about 120 miles, and east of both the Coast and Cascade ranges of mountains, is possibly found in this statement from the United States Weather Bureau. “Storm conditions prevailed here three days prior to the finding of S. antiquus, with a strong wind checked at 50 miles per hour, in gusts at the air port. Our heavy storms move in from the North Pacific in great cyclonic patterns.“-STANELY G. JEWETT, Portland, Oregon, January 8, 1951.
