BIEDS. 51 



Tbey commence uestbuilding early in May and usually complete the structure about the last of 

 Jane. They use dry grass and moss cemented -(vith mud, which they gather at the margin of the 

 small fresh- water sloughs and ponds scattered over the islands. Two or three eggs are laid, usually 

 the former number, and if they are removed the female deposits another set within ten days. 

 Incubation occupies from twenty-four to twenty-six days, and the male assists in the work. The 

 downy young is pure white with whitish-gray bill and feet. The natives make pets of the young, 

 but when the fall migration occurs the birds grow restless and soon fly away to the south with 

 their kind. 



Lakus BAREOVIANU.S liidgw. Pacific Glaucous Gull (Esk. Eu-J:i;:Jt-u-iriih). 



The Glaucous Gull of the Pacific coast, having proved to be distinct from the Atlantic coast 

 species, has been described by Mr. Kidgway under the above name. (Auk, July, 1886, 330.) 



Eeferences by earlier authors to the Pacific coast bird uuder (jJaucus will be understood to 

 apply here. 



The solitary islands of Bering Sea and all its dreary coast-line are familiar to this great 

 gull. In summer it occurs from the Aleutian Islands north to the farthest points reached by the 

 hardy navigators iu the Arctic Ocean adjoining. It is numerous at Point Barrow, according to 

 Murdoch. At Saint Michaels they appeared each year from the 12th to 30th of April, follow- 

 ing the leads in the ice as they opened from the south. They are the first of the spring birds to 

 occur in the north, and their hoarse cries are welcome sounds to the seal-hunter as he wanders 

 over the ice-fields far out to sea in early spring. They become more and more numerous until 

 they are very common. They wander restlessly along the coast until the ponds open on the 

 marshes near the sea, and then, about the last half of May, they are found straying singly or iu 

 pairs about the marshy ponds, where they seek their summer homes. Here they are among the 

 noisiest of the wild fowl. 



They have a series of hoarse cries like the syllables kii-ku-ku, ku-kii-ku, ku-lee-oo, ku-lec-oo, 

 kii-lee-Go, ku-kii-kii, ku-kii-ku. The syllables kii-kii are uttered iu a hoarse nasal tone, the rest, iu 

 a shrill, screaming cry, reaching the ear at a great distance. These notes are used when quarrel- 

 ing or communicating with each other, and when disturbed on their breeding ground. At 

 Unalaska, during May, 1877, 1 found them about the clitfs on the outer face of the island, and they 

 protested vigorously against our presence as they glided back and forth overhead or perched on 

 craggy shelves. 



Iu the Yukon delta also, on May 13, 1879, I found them common, and although they were not 

 yet seeking their breeding places their shrill cries were heard on all sides. At this date they had 

 bright almost waxy orange-yellow bills with a pale horn-colored shade at point and a bright ver- 

 milion spot on the angle of lower mandible. Their iris was light hazel, and feet and legs livid 

 flesh color. 



On June i their first nest was found. It was placed on a small islet, a#ew feet across, iu the 

 center of a broad shallow pond. The structure was formed of a mass of moss and grass piled up 

 a foot or more high, with a base 3 feet across, and with a deep central depression lined with dry 

 grass. There was a single egg. The female, as she sat on the nest, was visible a mile away, and 

 not the slightest ojiport unity was afforded for concealment on the broad surrounding flat. 



On June 15, near Saint Michaels, another nest was found, an equally conspicuous structure. 

 Like the majority of their nests found by me, it also was located on a small islet iu a pond. It 

 was 2 feet high, with a base from 3 to J: feet long by 2 wide, and measured about 18 inches across 

 the top. In the apex was a de])ression about 5 inches deep and 9 inches in diameter. This bulky 

 structure was made up of tufts of moss and grass rooted up by the birds' beaks. The ground 

 looked as though it had been rooted up by pigs in places near the nest and on the outer edge of 

 the pond, and while I was examining the nest, which contained three eggs, one of the old birds 

 came flying up from a considerable distance, carrying a large tuft of muddy grass in its beak and 

 dropped it close by on seeing me. One of the eggs takeu was white without a trace of the usual 

 color marks. While I was securing the eggs the parents swooped down close to my head, litter- 

 ing harsh cries. 



