252 FRANCIS H. HERRICK 



Audubon's ^^ remarks on the herring gulls on White Head 

 Island at the entrance to the Bay of Fundy, have often been 

 noticed. At the time of his visit, on May 22, 1833, he was sur- 

 prised to see their " nests placed on branches, some near the 

 top, others about the middle or on the lower parts of the trees, 

 while at the same time there were many on the ground." To 

 Audubon the owner of the island declared that the habit of 

 nesting in trees had been acquired within his own recollection, 

 for he said, " when I first came here, many years ago, they all 

 built their nests on the moss and in open ground; but as my 

 sons and the fishermen collected most of their eggs for winter 

 use, and sadly annoyed the poor things, the old ones gradually 

 began to put their nests on the trees in the thickest part of the 

 woods. The younger birds, however, still have some on the 

 ground, and the whole are becoming less wild since I have for- 

 bidden strangers to rob their nests." 



The conclusion thus drawn in regard to the cause of the 

 change in habits observed, is not strengthened by the further 

 sta. nent of Audubon that " on some of the islands not far 

 dissent, to which the fishermen and eggers have free access, 

 these gulls breed altogether on the trees, even when their eggs 

 and young are regularly removed every year," and that 

 " the young on the trees are shaken out of their nests, or 

 knocked down with poles, their flesh being considered very 

 good by the fishermen and eggers, who collect and salt them 

 for winter provision." Some of these birds nested as high as 

 forty feet or more, and Audubon predicted that after further 

 molestation they would go still higher, and finally build in 

 security in the rocky shelters on the summits of some of the 

 islands, as a few had been reported to have done already. 



If the variation in nesting habit noticed above were the 

 result of intelligence, we should expect that the birds would 

 take a further step and abandon their island altogether when 

 the limits of persecution had been reached. But this logical step 

 seems to be never or but seldom taken, as shown by the history of 

 the Hebrides and other rocky islands to the north of Scotland and 

 Ireland, of Ailsa Craig, or of Bird Rock. Indeed there are few 

 rock pinnacles or ledges which the intrepid eggers cannot reach, 

 and in some places as at St. Kilda, they have plied their trade 



^' Op. cit., vol. iii, p. 588. Edinburgh, 1835. 



