The Oologist. 



YOL. XI. NO. 8. 



ALBION, N. Y., AUG., 1894 



Whole No. 106 



Nesting of the "Western Gull. 



The Western Gull, or as it is some- 

 times called, the Western Herring Gull, 

 is a very abundant resident on this sec- 

 tion of the Pacitic coast, half \Vay be- 

 tween San Francisco and San Diego, 

 and so far as I know is the only Gull 

 permanently remaining here, although 

 we see others during the summer. 



There is one very wild section of 

 coast not far from here where I had 

 often been told that the Gulls could be 

 seen nesting on islands not more than 

 a stoie's throw away, but that it was 

 impossible to reach them. Before this 

 season I had not been able to visit this 

 locality, but this j'ear luck favored me 

 and I was camped with a party of sur- 

 veyor friends not more than eight or 

 nine miles from it. I was not idle here 

 and possessed myself of a set of ten 

 California Quail and a rotten single 

 Marsh Hawk, and also discovered 

 Bank Swallows nesting in large num- 

 bers, though most of the nests contained 

 young or ball}' incubated eggs. 



On the morning of June 1st I at last 

 started out with a friend on a trip for 

 Gull's eggs. For the first two miles we 

 had hard pulling through dry sand, but 

 soon we struck better roads, which led 

 through a bench about a quarter of a 

 mile wide between the mountains and 

 cliffs. After about four miles of this 

 we began to see the islands, which are 

 caused in a peculiar way; the ocean has 

 cut channels into the land leaving is- 

 lands about forty feet aljove the beaches 

 on the same level as the surface of the 

 mainland. At the bottom they are 

 composed of a soft rock (as also are the 

 clitTs of the mainland) which makes 

 climbing almost impossible, and furn- 

 ishes nesting places for large numbers 

 •of Cormoi'ants. At the top the islands 



are of dirt with grass growing on it 

 and the Gulls may be seen on almost 

 all of them sitting on their nests. 



We discovered a colon}' of live or six 

 Baird's Cormorants nesting on the 

 cliffs and went to cut a pole to get 

 some, and while passing a projecting 

 point of the mainland that ran out into 

 the beach we noticed a ladder stuck 

 across the mouth of a cave that ran in- 

 to the point. WMth the pole which we 

 got, a sinall bag and a piece of wire 

 from a convenient fence, we procurred 

 two sets of three each of Baird's Cor- 

 moi'ant. These birds are easily dis- 

 tinguished by their conspicuous white 

 flank patches and by the small size of 

 the eggs. The eggs are lined with 

 green and covered with a lime coating 

 which shows blue in thin places. They 

 often lay four eggs, but all the nests I 

 saw that day contained three, and the 

 ones I got were incubated slightly; I 

 find the measui'ements to average 2.20x 

 1.43. The fishermen call Cormorants, 

 Shags, and I believe that more than one 

 species nest here, possibly not on the 

 elite's as Baird's prefers to do, but on a 

 certain large rock in San Lius Bay 

 which I have in mind and intend to in- 

 vestigate as soon as possible. 



W^e now concluded to see about that 

 ladder. After a tough scramble and 

 slide we reached the rocky beach and 

 found the ladder of which we had seen 

 the end laid about four feet high across 

 the cave, each end being placed in a 

 hole to keep it from being washed 

 away. Not more than twenty feet 

 away across the naiTow beach was au 

 island from the top of which dangled a 

 piece of rawhide rope reaching half 

 way down. The ladder was a piece of 

 scantling about twenty-five feet long 

 with strips nailed across it, By setting 

 the ladder at the foot of the cliff it 



