JOURNAL OF MAINK OKNITHOLOGICAL SOCIKTY. 53 



roosted on every rock, coveriiiij^ also all the grassland. Up in the 

 trees big white birds had alighted on the bare branches, one above 

 the other, forming a series of terraces of living and glistening forms. 

 As we drew near we saw several of the Great Black-backed Onlls 

 sitting with the others, merely visitors it seemed, for these big 

 fellows had bred farther north and were now coming south to spend 

 the winter on the outer shores along the coast. Captain Young 

 steered for Rumguzzle cove, the elegant name applied to a wonder- 

 ful natural inlet, a depression of the high rocky formation of the 

 island, nearly cutting it in two. Here it is related how a drunken 

 crew from the West Indies was wrecked and drowned, while a big 

 cask of rum went ashore on the rocks and landed high and dry in 

 this cove, where it was afterwards rescued by the neighboring fish- 

 ermen. The place served our purpose now, but it was no easy task 

 to get out of the boat on the ledges without getting wet. It could 

 not have been done without the aid of so skillful a boatman as 

 Captain Young. 



Now the wonder of the scene opened before us. We were right 

 in the midst of the Gulls, which shrieked and barked over our heads, 

 eyed us with suspicion from the cliffs on either hand, and fled in our 

 pathway up to the highest point of the island. The young Gulls 

 were there in thousands, being easily recognized by their brown 

 plumage, while the adult birds were a glossy white. Captain Young 

 put the difference before us in his pithy way, when he remarked, 

 "You see the dark ones, — well, sir, every one of them was an egg 

 this spring." Now we began to thread our way among the gulls 

 up the steep cleft in the rocks and our real experience began. 

 Young Gulls, hardly able to fly, fled before us and tumbled down 

 among the rocks with much weak flapping of wings. Picking 

 them.selves up they perched at a safe distance and regarded us with 

 no look of favor. Over our heads swarmed more than a thousand 

 adult Gulls, every white beak sending forth a discordant cry. On 

 our left there was another thousand and on our right as many more, 

 perched on the ledges, on the grass, and in the tops of the s])ruce 

 trees. Down at our feet, in the water, was a bunch of birds that 



