136 Anthony, Pacific Coast Gulls. [\pril 



and swallow it with the same gusto and apparent relish with which 

 it bolted the egg a moment later. 



It is among the cormorants, however, that the greatest slaughter 

 takes place, and not only are the eggs eaten, but the young are well 

 grown before it is safe for the parents to leave them to brave the 

 bete .noire of cormorantdom — Lotus. The advent of man in the 

 region of a cormorant rookery is hailed with delight by every gull 

 on the island but to the poor cormorant it is a calamity of the dark- 

 est hue. As the frightened birds leave the nests, which have so far 

 never been for a moment left without the protection of at least one 

 of the parents, the screaming gulls descend in swarms to break 

 and eat the eggs or kill the young, as the case may be. Small cor- 

 morants are bolted entire despite their somewhat half-hearted pro- 

 test; larger birds are dismembered by two gulls assisting in the 

 operation, after the well known manner of barnyard chicks with a 

 worm, and before the adult cormorants have recovered from their 

 fright and returned to protect their homes a colony of several hun- 

 dred nests will be almost destroyed. I have found young Western 

 Gulls feasting on cormorant squabs half a mile or more from the 

 nests from which they had been abducted. 



That gulls drink sea water and can thrive on it, is a fact not to be 

 questioned, but I am of the opinion that when fresh water can be 

 obtained without too much trouble they will drink it in preference. 

 Several years ago I camped for a few days on the beach near a 

 small fresh- water pond; during my stay sea gulls were constantly 

 flying in from sea to drink, bathe, and preen their feathers. Many 

 single birds were noted flying from as far out as the eye could reach 

 direct to the pond; after a few moments of rest and a drink, they 

 returned to the sea in a manner that very plainly indicated that 

 they had business there and had happened in merely to get a little 

 fresh water. It is true, that at this time, the wind was kicking up 

 moderate sea, and while I have seen gulls resting on the waves 

 when they w T ere worse, they do not enjoy rough water, and may 

 have been influenced by the weather conditions more than I sup- 

 posed. 



While the sea gull may have spent the day clam hunting on the 

 mainland beaches, as soon as night falls instinct prompts it to 

 seek an island on which to spend the night. In calm weather the 

 dense kelp beds along the coast of southern California and Lower 



