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Published bv the Society on the first of March, June, September and December 

 Vol. IX SEPTEMBER, 1907 No. 3 



Visit to a Colony of Laughing Gulls. 



By \V. H. BrownsON. 



As one proceeds along the Maine coast, easterly from Portland, 

 the colonies of Sea Birds grow more numerous and more populous 

 until the Canadian line is reached, up to which point many of the 

 outer islands are fairly alive with almost countless Gulls, Terns, Sea 

 Pigeons, Petrels and other broad-winged ocean dwellers. North- 

 ward the colonies are even larger and birds in great variety are 

 found in immense numbers. In the vicinity of Portland, Bluff 

 island furnishes the only breeding place of importance, where there 

 is a colony of about tw^o thousand Common Terns. The Herring 

 Gulls, so frequently seen along the westerly shores in winter, and in 

 smaller flocks during the summer, breed no farther west than 

 Matinicus. The Gulls which stay in and around Portland harbor 

 in summer are doubtless barren birds, since there are no nests 

 nearer than No Man's Land, an islet within two miles of Matinicus 

 harbor. On one island, only, on the Maine coast, there is a colony of 

 Laughing Gulls, a smaller and more elegant species than the big 

 Herring Gulls, with which almost everybody is familiar. This 

 island is Western Egg Rock, near New Harbor, a small fishing 

 hamlet and summer resort in the town of Bristol. To visit this col- 

 ony, and to observe the other birds which breed in the locality, were 

 the objects which Mr. Arthur H. Norton and I had in view when 

 -we left Portland on the steamer Mineola, P'riday morning, August 



