276 Roserts, Westing Habits of Franklin's Gull. ne 
many places fully six feet deep and only the tops of the tallest 
rushes came into view; thus changing a large part of the nesting 
ground from a dense tangled bed of rushes into almost open 
water. Upon this condition of things the birds of course had not 
reckoned when they chose the site, and in consequence many of 
the nests were now torn from their moorings, having been lifted 
by the rising water, and were unprotected save by the weak tops 
of the submerged rushes. Thus free to drift, they were floating 
hither and thither at the mercy of the winds, but, strange to say, 
this state of things did not appear to greatly disconcert the 
owners. Here and there a number of nests had caught against 
some firm anchorage, and receiving new additions with each 
favorable breeze a windrow or island of these stray nests was soon 
formed. Nest touching nest in this manner resulted in a pro- 
miscuous crowding of families that must have tested the good 
nature and forbearance of the occupants not a little, and probably 
led to some vagaries in the care of the young described fur- 
theron. A few nests had gone adrift entirely, and foating far out 
into the open water had been abandoned. But luckily a consid- 
erable part of the colony, wiser than their fellows, escaped this 
dire confusion or disaster as the result of having located their 
nests where shallower water and a stronger growth of rushes pro- 
vided protection and safe anchorage even when the flood was at 
its height. From nest-building operations still in progress at the 
late date of our visit (June 16) we inferred that a few at least of 
the Gulls that had lost their homes were reéstablishing themselves 
in safer retreats further back, having perhaps learned a lesson 
against future similar mishaps. 
The number of Gulls in the colony we estimated at between 
two and three thousand, and by counting certain areas, figured a 
total of about 1200 nests. Preston, in 1885, thought the colony 
then numbered 10,000, so that if he guessed anywhere near right, 
there has been a very considerable falling off in the fourteen years 
that have elapsed. In the six years between my two visits no 
appreciable diminution in numbers had occurred, so far as I 
could judge. 
After completing our examination of the nesting ground as 
a whole, and so spreading consternation throughout the entire 
