LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 106 



a snowstorai. They are perched on the trees and standing on the ground, 

 where they resemble nothing so much as a national cemetery with its thou- 

 sands of white stones. When I first arrived at Great Duck the bii-ds did not 

 appear to mind my walking around among the nests so much as they did later 

 on. When I entered the nesting ground the birds within 50 to 100 feet of me 

 would rise and fly around, calling. Later on during my stay the birds within 

 200 to 2.o0 feet would rise. This may have been due to the fact that voung 

 were hatching out every day. 



On the ground the nests are placed in hollows or in plain sight on 

 sand or gravel or rocks, or in grassy fields. Sometimes they are 

 placed at the foot of stumps or close to an overhanging rock or pile 

 of driftwood ; sometimes on the ground in thick spruce woods. They 

 also nest on ledges on the face of cliffs, as at the Gaspe Peninsula. 

 A. H. Jordan (1888) found a few nests on an island in Lake Cham- 

 plain, where the birds were much persecuted, " quite well concealed 

 in the edge of the woods under low-hanging trees." An unusual 

 nesting site of the herring gull is mentioned by F. S. Daggett (1890), 

 who found on Isle Royale in Lake Superior four nests of this bird 

 built on the ice accumulated on the rocks by the dashing of the waves 

 in winter. A few warm days had already so melted the ice that 

 the nests with their contents were in danger of falling into the lake. 

 He also speaks of nests made in hollows in the accumulated droppings 

 of the bird. 



Dutcher and Bailey (1903) say: 



During incubation the weight of the sitting bird breaks down or packs the 

 nest, so they are continually being repaired and built up around the edges 

 with new material, which is always green grass or weeds, the effect being 

 very pretty indeed. On several occasions gulls were seen gathering this 

 material in their bills. The grass is bitten off or pulled up by the roots until 

 the bird has a ball in its hill larger than a man's fist. This material is gathered 

 where it is most plentiful and is usually carried by flight to the nest site. 



Baird. Brewer, and Ridgway (1884) describe a nest built in the 

 top of a spruce, 00 feet from the ground, at Grand Manan, which 

 was firmly built and " composed entirely of long, fine, flexible grasses. 

 evidently gathered, when green, from the salt marshes, and carefully 

 woven into a circular fabric. The nest measured about 18 inches in 

 diameter, its sides being 3 or 4 inches thick, and its cavity at the 

 center at least 4 inches deep." Ward (1906) observed incipient nest 

 building at Gravel Island in Lake Michigan, and says tliat "there 

 seemed to be no attempt to arrange the material with the bill," but 

 that the bird molded the nest with her breast. 



Dutcher and Bailey foimd at Duck Island, Maine, the average 

 depth of the bowl to Ijc 3 inches and its diameter 10 inches. The 

 diameter of the nests at the base varied from 13 to 24 inches; they 

 are sometimes built up to a height of 10 inches. Maj. G. Balph 



