38 



JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



which are built on the branches of the 

 trees are far better constructed auc) more 

 compact than those on the ground. 



Nest building begins the last of INIay 

 and fresh eggs may be found as early 

 as the first of June. By the fifteenth, 

 most of the nests would contain well- 

 iucubated eggs if they were not almost 

 daily I'obbed by the fishermen, who (and 

 perhaps with good taste) consider Gulls' 

 eggs a great delicacy. 



These constant I'obberies keep the 

 birds laying most of the summer, and I 

 have found fresh eggs as late as the 

 18th of August. These depredations 

 are doubtless the cause of the Gulls 

 nesting in trees and hiding their nests 

 .'midst the shrubbery of the wooded 

 islands. They are however greatly 

 attached to favorite breeding places and 

 will continue to frequent them until 

 driven away by the advent of man. 



The normal number of eggs to a set 

 is three, but in cases where the birds 

 have been robljed of their first laying 

 the second set laid often contains two 

 eggs. Having examined over 800 nests 

 on these islands during various seasons, 

 and only found ten which contained 

 four eggs each, I can safely assert that 

 the Gulls rarely lay more than three 



In about half of the cases where the 

 nests contained four eggs, those in each 

 nest resembled each other so very close- 

 ly in size, sh:ipe and markings as to 

 leave no grounds for doubting that they 

 were the product of one female in each 

 case. Four of the lemaining sets con- 

 tained eggs, one of which differed from 

 the other three in each ease, and still 

 another nest contained eggs, all four of 

 which were entirely different from each 

 other in size, shapt", markings and 

 ground color. 



After a good deal of experience and 

 study I have been forced to conclude 

 that while usually the eggs belonging to 

 a set (by this I mean the full comple- 

 ment of eggs found in a nest and which 

 are the product of one female) resemble 

 each other very closely in size, shape 

 and coloration, as well in this as in 

 other species, yet it is not rare to find 

 very different eggs in a nest in cases 

 where they must have been true sets. 

 In nests containing two and three eggs 

 of this species the eggs are often very 

 different from one another, the variation 

 in eggs in one nest being as extreme in 

 many cases as could be found by the 

 comparison of a large series of eggs 

 from different nests. 



Four single eggs which show the ex- 

 tremes of normal variation in size meas- 

 ure as follows :— 3.01 x2.01, 2.67 x 

 1.81, 2.71 X 2.07. A set of three meas- 

 ure :— 2.70 X 1.90, 2.75 x 1.88, 2.81 x 

 1.90. Runt eggs are sometimes laid, 

 especially toward the close of the breed- 

 ing season, and I have seen one not 

 much, if any, larger than an egg of the 

 Domestic Pigeon. 



The ground color of the eggs varies 

 from a light bluish-white to a yellowish- 

 brown or in rare cases a dark greenish- 

 drab. They are spotted, dotted and 

 blotched with various shades of umber, 

 brown, lilnc, drab and black, and the 

 markings are often inclined to be larger 

 and more numerous towards the larger 

 end. 



Although accurate data regarding the 

 period of incubation is at present unob- 

 tainable, I have heard of fishermen 

 putting Gulls eggs under hens and been 

 informed that they hatched in about 

 four weeks. The young are able to run 

 about very soon after hatching and are 



