no THE SOCIAL LIFE OF ANIMALS 



number below which a species cannot go with safety 

 have come in part under my own observation. In 

 1913, my first summer at the Marine Biological Lab- 

 oratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, the veteran 

 scientists of the laboratory, at least those who still 

 were willing to exhibit naturalistic enthusiasms, were 

 greatly pleased at the visit of a flock of laughing gulls 

 to the Eel Pond near the laboratory. The main 

 breeding ground of these gulls is on Muskeget Island 

 off Nantucket. In 1850 the laughing gulls were abun- 

 dant there; but they were exposed to the depreda- 

 tions of egg takers and later, about 1876, to the 

 attacks of men interested in obtaining their striking 

 wings and other feathers to satisfy the millinery de- 

 mand for feathers of native birds, which was then 

 at its height. (49) Under this slaughter the colony 

 was nearly wiped out; at its low point about 1880 

 there were not more than twelve pairs of laughing 

 gulls left on Muskeget Island, and only a few of these 

 bred. A warden was employed in a somewhat extra- 

 legal capacity by certain ornithologists who regretted 

 seeing the species die out, and he was assisted by the 

 captain of the local life-saving crew in protecting the 

 gulls from raids. Later changes in laws regarding 

 protection of birds and the use of plumage in mil- 

 linery gave more secure protection for the growing 

 colony. For the first ten years the birds increased 



