THE GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL. 719 



One marvels at llie boldnt-ss these harlxir gulls al times (lis])la\'. especially 

 when a touch of winter has made us all akin. The man whu minds his own 

 business may sometimes pass within six feet of sitting- liirds, — pass, not jjause. 

 For let him stop hut that fraction of an instant necessary to adjust a focus, and 

 the wary birds are off, their minds poisoned by dark suspicion. When the 

 great hunger is on, it is possible to bait the gulls to the camera in many ways; 

 but when that aching void is filled, all direct efforts at acquaintance are futile. 

 Thinking to eft'cct an ensemble piece, I once dumped a keg of choice "seconds" 

 from the rails of a packing house. The sun was bright, the camera set, and tlie 

 focus chosen. The gulls burdened every pile and timber in the vicinity ; and 

 yet as that wanton meat floated off on the tide, the ])ani[)ercd birds rmly leered 

 foolishly at it, and resumed their meditations. 



But it is not alone as pensioners of the city's untidy soup kitchen llial we 

 ma_\' know the gulls. Altho undoubted children of the sea, the gulls ha\x' cer- 

 tain Limicoiine affinities, which lead them to seek the \icinage of ponds and 

 fresh water shallows. That is to say, the ur-ancient ancestor of the gulls was 

 a swamp-lo\ing bird, and the gull is but answering the prime\al call when it 

 forsakes the sea to idle about in Hooded meadows or to haunt some rdiu\'ial bar. 

 On a lush day in earl_\- spring I ha\'e seen hundreds of these ad\enturers patter- 

 ing about the dank gardens at Alalmo's, now stop])ing to gaze al tlieir images in 

 the shallow mirrors of a recent rain, now wading into the ooze and treading 

 it in an apiiarent ecstacy of delight over its squashiness. 



At another time the whim of the aeronaut nia\' seize whole companies of 

 gulls, and they will sail about o\-er the city, gyrating by the hour in utter aim- 

 lessness save such as actuates park strollers on a summer afternoon. 



W'e may not follow now as our Gull hovers over or trails after any one of 

 the scores of boats which plv the waters of Puget Sound, but must hasten with 

 him in May to the nesting islands, the San Juans and the 01ym])ia(les. Many 

 birds lay aside their natural reserve and invite confidence, where they do not 

 actually throw themselves upon human ])rotection, at nesting time. Not so 

 with our gulls. Whether upon Waldron Head, Skipjack, Gull Island, or u]jon 

 the precipitous rocks of the western coast, the gulls are suspicious, wary, and 

 irreconcilable. Enter one of their colonies, and behave you never so amiably, 

 even to the point of accepting uiK)ffered hospitality for a week, it is all one. 

 You are an enemy and the gull is unforgiving. Generations of abuse have 

 ingrained this conviction into the gull's breast, and the just must suffer with 

 the unjust until the average of humanity rises. 



Of course the aborigine has been at fault here; but the little linger of the 

 white man is as the loins of the Indian, when once his cu])idity is aroused. 

 Williamson Rock and the Bird Rocks, lying in Rosario Straits, have been so 

 often robbed that their inhabitants flee at a shadow: and it is a bold l)ird that 

 nestS'On Viti, within reach of the motor-boaters of Bellinghani. iMirtunateK', a 



