Observations in a Laughing Gull Colony 



207 



comical impudence in stepping directly past the nest, at scarcely a yard's 

 distance, had thus aroused the very justifiable resentment of the owner. She 

 yelled likewise at the male when the latter dropped down beside the nest; 

 and her vociferations seemed shortly to have the desired effect, for he arose in 

 the air and did not offer to return. I was reminded of a remarkable similar 

 demonstration, which had come to my notice at Gardiner's Island a few weeks 

 previously, on the part of a female Osprey, who by loud screechings had pre- 

 vented her mate from alighting beside her on a boulder-nest while the umbrella 

 tent was in dangerously close proximity. 



At the end of a couple of hours, in hopes of obtaining a still more intimate 

 view of the faithful sitter, I 

 ventured to advance the tent 

 to within fifteen feet of the 

 nest. But, after another hour 

 had elapsed, I had come to 

 the conclusion that the move 

 was unfortunate, for the bird 

 now seemed to balk entirely 

 at the green object looming 

 so uncomfortably near ; more- 

 over, it led eventually, though 

 perhaps indirectly, to the 

 enactment before me of an 

 avian tragedy of a positiveh' 

 startling nature. 



At 5:40 P.M. a Laughing 

 Gull lit on the edge of the 

 nest, and, scarcely pausing for 

 an instant's survey of the 

 surroundings, plunged its bill 

 into the nest with a vicious 

 stroke, accompanied by the 

 audible crash of a breaking 

 eggshell! The act was so sud- 

 den and astonishing, if not 

 entirely unheard of, as to defy explanation for a time, at least. Could this 

 possibly be the owner, who, feeling compelled to desert her home, was there- 

 fore devastating it in a spirit of blind rage? Could it be her mate, so totally 

 devoid of parental instinct as to destroy his own unhatched offspring? Or 

 was it some other member of the colony, a robber or degenerate, taking 

 advantage of the owner's absence to feast with a cannibal's gluttony upon 

 the eggs of its own species? 



Before these questions could be answered, the Gull took sudden alarm and 



THE ROBBER HOVERIXG OVER THE XEST 



