Jones — On Birds of the Washington 'Coast. 21 



tance of the colony. There was no evident attempt at con- 

 cealment in any case, nor was there any clear indication that 

 any nests were placed with a view to shelter either from the 

 weather or from the scorching rays of the sun. The evident 

 distress of both old and young birds when exposed to the 

 direct sunlight would certainly afford excuse enough for seek- 

 ing a shady nook among the rocks. The very young birds 

 were nearly baked when left uncovered for any great length of 

 time. One such died under our eyes, evidently from the heat. 



The many attitudes of the birds in the colony and upon 

 their nests are well shown in the outline of the colony. Those 

 standing erect are protesting the invasion of their ancient 

 domain by the camera-man. The one beneath which the eggs 

 show has merely raised up from the position which the com- 

 pletely sitting bird in front maintains. The sitting bird is in 

 the incubating posture. In contrast to this note the attitudes 

 of the old birds upon the nests containing young which are 

 old enough to hold their heads up for food, as in figure 4. The 

 attitude here shown is the one just preceding or following 

 feeding. The birds stand at attention and are ready to fly at 

 a moment's notice without creating any disturbance in the 

 nest. The old bird in figure 3 "stood" to the camera beauti- 

 fully, permitting an approach within three feet, focussing 

 cloth and all, and did not so much as start at the snap of the 

 shutter. The youngster beside her was later fool enough to 

 try his featherless wings and got bumped for his pains. 



Figure 5 is a nest-full — four young of somewhat different 

 ages, but all belonging to the same brood. The black downy 

 covering, the orange-yellow throat pouch, and the open mouth 

 of the youngster at the left of the picture are all characteristic. 

 These birds pant like a dog when they are hot, as these birds 

 were, the throat pouch throbbing and expanding with every 

 inhalation. It appeared that the panting was the result of an 

 attempt to cool the blood. The utter helplessness of the very 

 young is well shown in figure 6. The bird hanging over the 

 edge of the nest is not more than a day old. The remaining 

 egg hatched on the day following the photograph. The nest 

 shown in figure 7 was partly sheltered by an overhanging 



