934 THE CALIFORNIA MURRE. 
The California Murre’s notes consist chiefly of a mumbled and apologetic 
ow ow, or a louder arry of protest; but occasionally the birds explode in 
stentorous kerawks, absurdly out of character with their mild eyes. The 
name Arre, which is applied to a closely related species in the North Atlantic, 
is manifestly imitative. 
Colonies of these California Murres are found in Washington only upon 
the protected islands of the Olympiades: one on the Grenville Pillar, others 
on Willoughby Rock, Jagged Islet, Paahwoke-it, and Habaaht-aylch (Carroll 
Islet). The entire breeding population might not exceed one thousand pairs, 
an insignificant number compared with the myriads which swarm in favored 
localities both north and south, and, especially, upon the Farallones of 
California. 
The Farallone Joomeries (as the nesting colonies of Murres are called )are 
famous as the scenes of unexampled commercial plundering. “In 1850 the 
Farallone Egg Company was organized to collect and ship the eggs of the 
California Murre for the San Francisco market, and by 1856 it was estimated 
that three or four millions of eggs had been shipped’. These eggs brought 
nearly as much in the markets as hens’ eggs, and were unquestionably good 
eating; but it was not a square deal for a bird whose normal output is one egg 
per annum. The depredations had totalled nearly a million dozen when, in 
1897, the attention of the Lighthouse Board was called to the sadly depleted 
condition of the colonies, and the looting was stopped. 
In Autumn the Murre lays aside its modest brown cloak and assumes a 
still soberer one of black. The white of the underparts is also more extensive 
in winter at which season alone this bird appears in numbers upon the channels 
and expanses of Puget Sound. It is probable that the winter population con- 
sists almost exclusively of Alaskan birds, while our native birds retire to the 
California coast. They are usually fairly wary, plunging at sight of the 
approaching steamer, or else making off rapidly near the surface of the water. 
One which appeared in the harbor of Seattle in February, however, seemed 
enamored of our town. This guileless creature, to our trembling surprise, al- 
lowed us to approach in a rowboat to within fifteen feet of him before diving, 
and that only at the snap of the shutter which marked the recording of his 
portrait. We waited some time for the bird’s reappearance, but did not locate 
him again until an hour afterward and a half mile further up-shore. Again 
we rowed past him on the side, and then backed up from the sunny quarter. 
This time we got within ten feet of our friend from Sitka, as he lay, filled 
with a mild curiosity, full length upon the water. Again and again we pur- 
sued, having conceived the notion of snapping him in the act of diving. But 
each time the preparatory movements of diving were made so rapidly that 
a. W. Otto Emerson in The Condor, Vol. VI, p. 62. 
