68 BUULETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL, MUSEUM. 



and straws, and were sometimes decorated with feathers or fish 

 bones; some of the nesting material must have been carried a long 

 distance, for the nearest land on which any grass was growing was 

 many miles away. Many of the eggs were pipped and there were 

 quite a number of downy young running about, but a few of the 

 eggs were only slightly incubated. The nesting grounds of the 

 gulls were closely adjacent to a large breeding rookery of Steller's 

 sea lions {Eumetopias stelleri)^ with which they seemed to be on 

 friendly terms. 



A few days later we landed on Walrus Island, the most wonderful 

 bird island in North America. Here we found a breeding colony of 

 this species mixed with glaucous gulls on the highest part of the 

 island, where the accumulations of guano had formed a rich soil, 

 supporting a luxuriant growth of grass. Other portions of the little 

 island, which I have described more fully in the history of the red- 

 faced cormorant, contained, in close proximity to the gulls, the most 

 densely populated colonies I have ever seen of California and Pallas's 

 murres, tufted puffin, paroquet, crested and least auklets. Pacific kit- 

 tiwakes, and red-faced cormorants. At the time of our visit (July 7, 

 1911) most of the gulls' eggs had hatched, but a few eggs were still 

 to be seen in the nests among the tufts of grass. Mr. William Palmer 

 (1899) says of the nests on these islands: 



On Walrus Island the nests are quite numerous. On June 13 many con- 

 tained three eggs well incubated; some had two fresh eggs, while a few had 

 one or two young and an egg or two. Larger young were picked up on the 

 rocks near the nests. The nests are well made, clean, and are generally com- 

 posed of dead grass stems, which the birds bring from St. Paul. While most 

 were placed on the flat rock, a few were in depressions of the sand which tilled 

 some of the larger crevices of the rocks. 



Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) says: 



The usual nesting places of this species are the faces of rugged clilfs, at 

 whose base the waves are continually breaking and the coast exposes its wildest 

 and most broken outline. 



He seems to think that instances of these gulls nesting in other sit- 

 uations are exceptional. They nest on the steep, rocky cliffs of St. 

 George Island and in similar situations elsewhere, but they also nest 

 frequently on the flat, grassy tops of many small islands, and are 

 found on the sandy plains of Bogoslof Island. We never found them 

 nesting on the larger islands in the Aleutian chain, where they might 

 be disturbed by foxes. On June 19, 1911, I saw a large number of 

 glaucous-winged gulls frequenting a high grassy plain on Kiska 

 Island and acting as if they were breeding in the vicinity, but I could 

 not find any nests. 



Eggs. — The glaucous-winged gull normally lays three eggs, though 

 frequently two constitute a full set; four eggs are very rarely, if 



