Guadalupe Island Xantus Murrelet in California Waters
Guadalupe Island Xantus Murrelet in California Waters
After reading the intercsting article by J. Elton Green and Lee W. Arnold, in the Condor for January, 1939, the writer studied, in comparison with their findings, the specimens of Endomychura hypoleztca in the Los Angeles Museum. The series now in this institution (collections L. A. Museum, L. B. Bishop, J. S. Garth, and G. Willett) numbers 31 birds, two from Guadalupe Island, fourteen from Los Coronados, the remainder from Californian waters.
The results of this study appear to substantiate the conclusion of Green and Arnold that there are two races of hypoleuca, one of which has been found nesting only at Guadalupe Island. Our two examples from the latter locality are like the ones figured by Green and Arnold. There are, also, two specimens (nos. 2803, 2804 coll. G. W.), undoubtedly migrants, taken by the writer in the channel between San Pedro and Catalina Island, August 11 and 13, 1928, that appear referable to the Guadalupe Island form, E. h. hypolezcca. That this bird should occur as a migrant along our coast is not strange, when the rather common occurrence of the related species, E. craven’, is considered.
That the relationship of the Guadalupe Island bird is closer to the breeding bird of California than it is to craveri, is substantiated by a study of our specimens. The black area beneath the eye is quite variable in width, and in some of our birds from Los Coronados Islands and Anacapa Island it is much narrower than in the figured type of scrippsi.
G. Willett
Los Angeles Museum, Los Angeles, California, January 30, 1939
