502 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
I arranged my trip so that it would cover those hours not included 
on other days. Ward also spent a night at a guil colony, and I quote 
his interesting account ' of his experiences as follows: 
Sleep seemed to occur perhaps a little more frequently during the warmer hours of 
the afternoon than at other times, though pretty evenly distributed through the 24 
hours. The birds sometimes stood, but more frequently squatted on the ground and 
turned their heads over their backs and tucked them under their wing feathers. Sleep 
was of very short duration, as fights, panics, and alarms of various sorts followed one 
another too closely to allow of unbroken repose for more than a few minutes at a time. 
The night that I spent among them there was less sleep than during the day. Thesun 
set about half past 7, but at 8 o’clock the colony was as busy as ever fighting, making 
abortive nests, and screaming. At 10 minutes past 8 the moon arose, and 10 minutes 
later nearly all the gulls suddenly took wing in what I conceived to be a panic, until 
shortly afterwards I spied a large flock of them on the water in the direction of the 
moon. Later they worked around the island, so that I was between them and the 
moon, and I could then see that they were busily fishing. My notes continue up toa 
quarter of 3, when I fell asleep with the gulls still on the water and noisy. When I 
awoke at 20 minutes after 4 the sun was up, most of the gulls were on the island, and 
many young were teasing a few adults for breakfast. 
On July 7, 1911, at 7.20 in the evening, I was on the island and I 
left the next morning at 7.05. My blind was erected and I was inside 
ready for work at 7.45 when my companion left the tent and went 
away in the motor boat that had brought us. Within 10 minutes the 
culls had settled down to normal activities, i. e., when the boat had 
gone a fair distance from shore. The “challenge” and mewing cries 
were made a number of times during the following half hour. I also 
heard the quack of a red-breasted merganser occasionally during this 
period, and a bronzed grackle flew near the tent. At 8.25 a spotted 
sandpiper call was heard, also a very young gull apparently calling for 
food. By 8.40 it was too dark to see my writing and the gulls were 
quieter. There was an outbreak of noise, however, at 8.43, which 
lasted for a minute or so. I used a small pocket electric flashlight, 
carefully concealed during the night, to see my watch and to make 
notes. 
About 9.30, when the sunset glow was practically gone, a board 
was knocked down from one end of my tent, making a noise which 
alarmed the whole colony, and no birds came near my tent except 
in flight, so far as I could determine, until daybreak. The moon 
set about 1 a. m., and there was only starlight. I could not see any 
birds, but I could hear them flying about all night, giving the alarm 
cry at intervals. The gulls were less noisy from 1 to 2.45. Small 
juvenals were heard calling occasionally through the night. 
Shortly before 3 the first glow of approaching day appeared in the 
east, and the gulls began to settle down near my tent. They also 
became very noisy, especially with the challenge cry. At this time 
1 Ward, H. L., Notes of the herring gull and the Caspian tern. Bull. Wisconsin Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. 
4, No. 4, October, 1906, p. 132. 
