98 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



parents, the screaming gulls descend in swarms to break and eat the eggs or 

 kill the young, as the case may be. Small cormorants are bolted entire, despite 

 their somewhat half-hearted protest ; larger birds are dismembered by two gulls 

 assisting in the operation, after the well-known manner of barnyard chicks 

 with a worm ; and before the adult cormorants have recovered from their fright 

 and returned to protect their homes a colony of several hundred nests will be 

 almost destroyed. I have found young western gulls feasting on cormorant 

 squabs half a mile or more from the nests from which they had been abducted. 



Mr. A. B. Howell writes: 



These robbers are surely the pest of their range during the spring months. 

 When the pelicans and cormorants are flushed from their nests, down comes a 

 devastating army of the marauders, spearing the eggs with their bills and 

 neatly devouring them on the wing, pecking holes in the skulls of the young 

 pelicans for the fun of it, and bolting the shiny cormorant chicks with a great 

 gulping and show of satisfaction. A favorite pastime of theirs is to pester a 

 half grown pelican until the latter relinquishes his last meal as a peace offering, 

 and this the gulls greedily fight over. The gulls themselves have few enemies, 

 except man, and now that egging has been practically stopped they are free to 

 Increase and flourish. 



Winter. — After the breeding season is over and the young gulls 

 have become strong on the wing, they begin to scatter and spread 

 out all along the coast, extending the winter range of the species 

 northward to Puget Sound, where it is one of the common winter 

 gulls. They are given to wandering at this season, following the ves- 

 sels up and down the coast, chasing schools of fish, feasting on the 

 garbage dumps, roosting on the islands at night, and associating 

 freely with other species of gulls, cormorants, pelicans, and other sea 

 birds. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Breeding range. — Pacific coast of North America, from British 

 Columbia and Washington (various islands off the coast) southward 

 along the coasts of Oregon, California, and Lower California, on 

 nearly all suitable islands, at least as far as Cerros and Guadalupe 

 Islands; also in the Gulf of California (San Pedro Martir, Ildefonso, 

 and Carmen Islands). 



Breeding grounds protected in the following national reservations : 

 In California, Farallon Islands; in Oregon, Three Arch Rocks; 

 in Washington, Copalis Eock and Quillayute Needles, as Carroll 

 Islet. 



Winter range. — Practically resident throughout its breeding range. 

 North in winter to British Columbia and south to southwestern 

 Mexico (Isabella and Tres Marias Islands, Tepic). 



Egg dates. — Farallon Islands: Fifty-five records, May 12 to July 

 10 ; twenty-eight records, June 3 to 24. Coronados Islands : Ten rec- 

 ords. May 6 to June 30 ; five records. May 11 to June 4. Washington : 

 Seven records, June 3 to July 12 ; four records, June 3 to 14. Gulf of 

 California : Three records, April 5, 6, and 7. 



