482 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
On erecting my tent at one of the Sister Islands, July 12, 1911, 
I took a downy juvenal not more than a week old inside with me. 
This I released at 12.50 p. m., and it made its way out at once. Its 
appearance outside caused great excitement. The little gull started 
west in the direction of the place where I had captured it. On 
its way it went near a couple of gulls which appeared to belong 
to a nest [ had under observation. These birds started the “‘chal- 
lenge cry,’ and others joined in the same performance. The small 
gull approached the two adults just mentioned and was pecked on 
the head after a minute or so. It was next given a number of sharp 
blows which apparently did no serious damage. The little bird 
turned at bay and when pecked most severely ran screaming with 
mouth open toward its persecutors. This was followed by alter- 
nate running and fighting, a procedure which was successful in 
preventing further serious attacks. The bird eventually found 
shelter under driftwood about 50 feet away from my tent. 
Herrick explains these attacks upon the young as follows: 
This is due to the ferocity of the guarding and fighting instincts in the old birds, 
and to a lack of attunement in the instincts of the young, in consequence of which 
a chick will occasionally stray from its own preserve and trespass on the domain of a 
neighbor. 
Undoubtedly this covers many and perhaps most cases, but it 
seems doubtful whether the deaths among the juvenals at Gravel 
Island, described by Ward, can be explained as easily. There both 
Ward! and I found a promiscuous herding of juvenals without 
regard to precincts, at least when the birds were of good size. Fur- 
thermore, it does not account for attacks upon juvenals by other 
juvenals. 
Other birds may nest in apparent safety upon an island even 
fairly densely populated with gulls. Spotted sandpipers, bronzed 
grackles, song sparrows, and other land birds were more or less com- 
mon nesters on the Strawberry Islands. I found red-breasted mer- 
gansers nesting on all of the wooded islands occupied by gulls. So 
far as I could see, no attention was paid to these birds by the gulls. 
On the other hand, a large bird like the great blue heron seemed to 
be viewed with disfavor, and I did not find both occupying the 
same island. On one occasion, I saw a great blue heron pursued 
and much harassed by gulls. 
I have always found herring gulls nesting on islands not inhabited 
by man, but exceptions occur in the literature. <A very large colony 
of gulls studied by Dutcher and Baily was found nesting on Great 
Duck Island which has a lighthouse. 
Though the herring gull seems to prefer remote places for nesting, 
it is a matter of common observation that at other times, if unmo- 
1 Ward, H. L., Notes of the herring gull and the Caspian tern: Bull. Wisconsin Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. 4, 
No. 4, 1906, pp. 113-134, 2 plates. 
