66 BULLETIN U3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



particularly abundant in a great variety of plumages of different 

 ages. But when we passed through Dixon Entrance and out into 

 the Pacific Ocean we left the gulls behind, as the land faded away 

 from sight, and when 50 or 100 miles from land they had been re- 

 placed by the more pelagic fulmars and albatrosses. We did not 

 see them again until we came within sight of the Aleutian Islands, 

 and from that time on they were always with us tliroughout the 

 whole length of the Aleutian chain. 



Spring. — As this gull is practically resident, or, at least, always 

 briefly a few typical breeding colonies in different localities, 

 present throughout all but the extreme northern portions of its 

 breeding range, it is difficult to tell just when it arrived on its breed- 

 ing grounds ; but it usually begins to frequent or to resent intrusion 

 upon its nesting groimds at least a fortnight before Qgg laying 

 begins, the dates varying greatly in the different latitudes. To illus- 

 trate the wide variations in its nesting habits I propose to describe 



Nesting. — The largest and most interesting colonies of the glaucous- 

 winged gull, in the southern part of its range, are among the spec- 

 tacular sea-bird colonies on the roclcy islands set apart as reserva- 

 tions off the coast of Washington, and divided into three groups, 

 known as the Copalis Rock Reservation, the Quillayute Needle Res- 

 ervation, and the Flattery Rocks Reservation. Mr. W. Leon Daw- 

 son (1908a) and Prof. Lynds Jones visited the various islands in 

 these groups in 1905 and 1907, and made careful estimates of the 

 numbers and kinds of birds found breeding there. The full report is 

 well worth reading to gain a fair impression of what these wonder- 

 ful reservations contain, but I shall confine my quotations to a few 

 striking facts taken from it. Only two pairs of glaucous-winged 

 gulls were found nesting on Destruction Island, which seems to be 

 the southern limit of its breeding range. Thence northward, colo- 

 nies of this species became more frequent and increased in size. The 

 largest colony was found on Wishalooth Island, from 2,000 to 3,000 

 glaucous- winged gulls, 100 to 500 western gulls, 1,000 tufted puffins, 

 6,000 to 15,000 Kaeding's petrels, and 100 Baird's cormorants. This 

 is an island of about 20 acres, three-quarters of a mile offshore in 

 the Quillayute Needles Reservation. It is "a lofty jagged ridge of 

 metamorphic conglomerate with sharply sloping sides covered with 

 guano ledges and resulting areas of shallow earth, which are clothed 

 with grass and other vegetation — yarrow, painted cup, and the like ; 

 175 feet high ; 200 yards long along the crest." Carroll Islet, " the 

 gem of the Olympiades," as Mr. Dawson calls it, contained the fol- 

 lowing wonderful colonies of breeding water birds: Five thousand 

 tufted puffins, 1,000 Cassin's auklets, 20 pigeon guillemots, 700 Cali- 

 fornia murres, 1,000 glaucous-winged gulls, 60 western gulls, 600 



