84 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL, MUSEUM. 



Although usually silent elsewhere, it is a very noisy bird on its 

 breeding grounds, indulging in a variety of loud, harsh cries or 

 raven-like croaks. It has a long drawn-out scream — keeaaw — on a 

 lower key than that of the herring gull. It also has a short, more 

 quickly uttered note — kow^ kow^ kow — very much like the other 

 gulls; also a high pitched ki ki and a hoarse laughing ha, ha, ha. 

 Its courtship note is softer and more prolonged, sounding at times 

 like kowaat, but varied and modulated in a most human manner. 

 Mr. Cleaves describes some of the vocal performances as follows : 



There were few moments of the day or night when absolute silence prevailed 

 in the colony. The sounds produced by the birds were varied, both in form 

 and in volume, and ranging from the baby whine of the downy young to the 

 great bellow or trumpet of a giant adult black-back standing above the lake 

 on a 6-foot bowlder. The calls intermediate between these two extremes were 

 mostly variations of groans or kindred sounds, some of which were soft and 

 to be heard only at short range. There were two cries, given perhaps with 

 greater frequency than all others, which the writer can now recall with most 

 distinctness. One was the mellow " kuk-kuk-kuk," uttered when the birds were 

 disturbed and far aloft over the islands; the other, the inspiring trumpeting 

 bellow, emitted when the gulls were unmolested, and usually when standing 

 on some prominence or on the open shore. Each syllable of the latter cry 

 .sounded like " oo " in " loon," given slowly and with comparative softness at 

 first, but repeated slightly more rapidly as the call proceeded and the syllables 

 gaining volume until, at the end, when the sound had been uttered 8 to 14 

 times, the noi.se was tremendous at a range of only a few feet. The uproar 

 caused by a chorus of 50 trumpeting gulls could no doubt be distinctly heard 

 over the lake on an otherwise still morning at a range of a mile or more. 

 In producing this bellowing call a bird usually began on the introductory notes 

 with his head lowered, raising it as the call advanced, until, at the finish, his 

 open bill pointed toward the zenith and his neck was inflated from the force 

 of his " challenge." 



Mr. Cleaves relates in his notes the following interesting incident : 



One pair of old birds, who apparently had but a single chick of probably two 

 weeks, engaged in a curious performance only 3 feet from the wall of the blind. 

 Amid rumbling sounds and groanings from the parents and whining from the 

 baby one of the old birds picked from the beach a dried fern leaf and waded 

 slowly and with apparent gravity into the lake with it until he was belly deep 

 in the water. He then stopped and thrust his bill and its contents beneath the 

 surface, moving his head rather vigorously from side to side as he did so. The 

 female (?) followed a few paces behind with empty beak, and when she was a 

 little way from the shore she submerged her entire head, holding it below for 

 two or three seconds. After withdrawing it she took a step or two forward 

 (following the first bird) and then immersed her head again. Throughout the 

 entire ceremony the youngster whined, apparently for food, and waded as far 

 in the wake of his elders as he could, with comfort, in the choppy waves. The 

 bird carrying the fern then came slowly back to shore where his burden was 

 dropped without further formality. Son)e minutes later, however, the same bird 

 picked up a cast primary from the beach and reenacted almost the exact cere- 

 mony Oirough which he had gone with tlie dead fern, and the other members of 



