254 



THE OOLOGIST. 



rested iu a natural gully in the side of 

 the cliff and "was kept steady. From 

 the top of the ladder we could reach 

 the rope and with the help of an occas- 

 ional toe-hold got to the top. Here we 

 found the object of our search — two 

 sets of three Western Gull and two of 

 two each besides leaving several sin- 

 gles, the nests were excavated in the 

 dirt several inches and made of grass, 

 weed stalks and sea-grass not vei\y 

 deeply cupped, although when seen 

 from a little distance the Gulls setting 

 on the nests are half hidden. There 

 were some new nests not j'et laid iu 

 and some old ones not occupied, !?o 

 that it would seem that they do not, as 

 Davie states, always use the same nest 

 from year to year. This might be dif- 

 ferent, however, where the nest is 

 placed on a rock, and I have known a 

 single Gull to nest on small rock (in the 

 surf and impossible to get at) every 

 year for several years past. 



The uniformity in shape and coloring 

 between eggs of the same set is some- 

 thing remarkable. 



Setl. Slightly incubated. All the 

 eggs of this set are of a light neutral 

 ground color, less thickly spotted with 

 dark brown than any of the other sets. 

 The spots are rounder and not so much 

 in the shape of blotches. In shape 

 they ai'e rounder at the lai'ge end and 

 more pointed. All the eggs have dark 

 shell markings. 2.76x2.03, 2.78x1.97, 

 2.81x2.05. 



Set 2. Slightly incubated. Olive 

 ground color. Egg 1 has lai'ge spots 

 not very thickly disti-ibuted; egg 2 has 

 spots and lengthy scrawls; egg 8 has 

 small and thick spots. 2.79x1.91, 2.84x 

 1.87, 2.85x1.93. 



Set 3. Not noticeably incubated. 

 Egg 1 has a clear olive ground color 

 with very small and thick spots; Qgg 2 

 olive with larger spots and blotches. 

 2.90x1.96, 2.89x1.91. 



Set 4. Not noticeablj' incubated. 

 Egg 1 is very dark with medium sized 



spots; egg 2 is lighter with spots not so- 

 thick. 2.83x1.91, 2.86x1.92. 



I also find the Pigeon Guillemot nest- 

 ing here in holes in the sides of cliffs- 

 and caves from eight to twenty-live feet 

 above water. Some times the holes, 

 are very hard to get into. When rob- 

 bed tlie birds will immediately lay 

 again. On May 12th I took a partially 

 incubffted set from a hole in a cave and 

 on June 11th another in the same con- 

 dition. Often two nests wilU be within 

 two or three feet of each other. The- 

 eggs are light green with black spots 

 usually forming a ring around the large 

 end. Often one egg of a set will be of 

 a decided green and the other almost 

 white. A specimen set measures: 2.49 

 xl.70, 2.37x1.64. 



Whoever he was, whatever his ob- 

 ject, and however he managed to reach, 

 the top, the man who made that island 

 accessible has my siucerest gratitude. 



N. M. MORAN, 



San Luis Obispo, Cal. 



The First Day of June, '94- 



It seemed a poor day to do anything 

 out of doors. There had been a succes- 

 sion of rainy days, and the sky was 

 just commencing to clear up in a 

 showery, desultory fashion. One min- 

 ute it would rain, and the next the sun 

 shone bright and uncomfortably warm. 

 But as I could not work such a day I 

 concluded it would be the best chance 

 I might get in a long time to take a col- 

 lecting trip to a tract of brush and 

 waste land I wished to visit, and so it 

 proved. Therefore I got a friend of 

 mine, who, though he seldom finds a 

 good nest himself, is a great help some- 

 times in procuring nests in more or less 

 inaccessible positions; gathered up my 

 boxes and other necessary adjuncts 

 and started out. 



Of course we laid out our route to in- 

 clude as many favorable places for 



