78 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



beach — a large pile of coarse grasses, seaweeds, sods, and mosses 

 neatly lined with fine grasses. It measured 62 inches across the pile, 

 and the inner cavity, which was deeply hollowed, was 10 inches in 

 diameter. It contained three fresh eggs on May 25, 1909, Another 

 nest was found the next day, which also contained three fresh eggs, 

 on the moss-covered rocks on the highest portion of a small island. It 

 was a shallow nest of mosses, grasses, twigs, and rubbish, with a few 

 feathers and a little seaweed. It measured 20 inches in outside and 10 

 inches in inside diameter, hollowed to a depth of about 2^ inches. 

 There was only one pair of gulls on this island, but a pair of eiders 

 were nesting in a hollow among some fallen dead trees. On some of 

 the islands the nests were mere depressions in the turf 9 or 10 inches 

 across, and the eggs were laid on the ground. The fresh green grass 

 made a handsome border to these nests, but there was no lining of any 

 sort, and not even a twig or bit of straw was used in the construction. 

 Some of them had evidently been used for several seasons. 



On the northeast coast of Labrador, in 1912, I found the great 

 black-backed gull common and evenly distributed all along the coast, 

 breeding in single pairs on low rocky islands, well inland in the deep 

 bays and among the outer islands. They are locally known as " sad- 

 dlers " or " saddle backs." They are intimately associated with the 

 eider ducks, affording them some protection as sentinels to warn 

 them of approaching dangers. There is almost always a pair of 

 great black-backed gulls nesting on every island where the American 

 eiders or northern eiders are breeding. The fishermen rob the ducks' 

 nests persistently all through the summer, but do not disturb the 

 gull's nests, for they believe that if the gulls are driven away the 

 ducks will not return to breed again. Apparently the adult gulls do 

 not rob the eider's nests, for they are too shy to do so while egg col- 

 lectors are on the island, and at other times the eiders are able to 

 defend their eggs ; but I saw some evidence to indicate that the young^ 

 gulls, when unable to fly but large enough to run about, do some- 

 times eat the eider eggs. While exploring a low rocky island in one 

 of the bays, where several pairs of northern eiders and one pair of 

 great black-backed gulls were breeding, on August 2, 1912, I noticed 

 an eider's nest in which the eggs had been broken and eaten. One 

 young gull was seen swimming away from the island and one long- 

 legged youngster, about half grown, was running about over the 

 smooth rocks so fast that we could hardly catch him. I suspected 

 that he was responsible for the broken eggs. Probably the damage 

 done in this way is more than offset by the benefits derived from 

 such wary sentinels and such powerful defenders against the depre- 

 dations of other gulls and ravens. Young gulls are considered to be 

 very good eating and are often kept in confinement by the resi- 

 dents cf Labrador and fattened for the table. 



