Vol l906 in ] Anthony, Pacific Coast Gulls. 131 



Glaucous-winged, Herring, Ring-billed, and Short-billed Gulls. 

 At times the Bonaparte's will join the flock, but not often, as this 

 species seems to prefer the regions of the quiet bays or kelp beds 

 along shore. Along the southern coast Heermann's Gull will be 

 much in evidence, with its slaty plumage and pure white head con- 

 trasting strangely with the other species. That some, at least, of 

 these birds follow the vessel for days I have no doubt, for on one 

 occasion I remarked a Glaucous-winged Gull on leaving San Diego. 

 A broken primary hanging from one wing made identification rea- 

 sonably sure, and for three days the bird was never more than a 

 few hundred yards from the steamer. I lost sight of him at the 

 entrance of San Francisco Bay, and would have been by no means 

 surprised to have found him in the wake of the next steamer bound 

 south. During the summer months there are not so many gulls 

 following the steamers, and those seen are, for the most part, birds 

 of the preceding year. Adults are picked up as the vessel passes 

 the breeding islands but are soon lost again. In sailing off shore 

 also one soon loses the gulls; the large flock picked up at the harbor 

 bar soon begins to drop off, the Ring-bill and other smaller species 

 being the first to leave and the Glaucous-winged and Herring turn- 

 ing back some twenty-five miles at sea, perhaps about the time the 

 saber-like wings of the Black-footed or Short-tailed Albatross are 

 seen on the horizon. I have once or twice picked up a lone Sabine's 

 gull three or four hundred miles off shore, but the vessel offered but 

 a momentary attraction, for after one or two tacks across the wake, 

 as if to read the name and hailing port on the counter, the inde- 

 pendent rover was gone. 



These same remarks might apply equally to a number of Parasitic 

 Jaegers I have seen after reaching deep water, and the one or two 

 specimens that I secured thus far from shore somewhat upset my 

 previous idea that the bird is entirely parasitic, depending on the 

 gulls and terns for its food; for these deep sea individuals had their 

 stomachs filled to overflowing with fish spawn about the size of No. 

 5 shot, evidently that of some species spawning on the surface where 

 the bird could pick it up without trouble. I have seen this jaeger 

 in Bering. Straits diving for surf smelt, together with Pacific Kitti- 

 wakes, but like all of this group, they found it difficult to get below 

 the surface, even with the help of a drop of six or eight feet above 



