26 Strong, Habits of the Herring Gull. LJan. 



until a time agreed upon for the trip home. During this period I 

 could not emerge myself without spoiling all chances for the day. 

 After the departure of my companion, the apparently normal life 

 of the colony was largely resumed in a few minutes. This precau- 

 tion was not observed at Gravel Island, and the gulls there did not 

 come very near the tent during the several hours my companion 

 and I spent in the tent. Apprehension was shown in other ways, 

 also. Ward's experience at Gravel Island when he had no one to 

 leave the tent was similar and his account ^ follows. " The next 

 time that I visited the colony, three days later, I was alone. I 

 beached my boat, set up my tent and entered. Six minutes later 

 the first of the young reached the island, followed two minutes later 

 by the settling of the first adults, some on the island at its most 

 distant point, but most in the water. It was an hour and thirty- 

 five minutes before any came close to the tent, and not until half 

 past four the next morning, or thirteen hours after setting up my 

 tent, did the first one alight on it. The gulls on this occasion were 

 quite uneasy and were frequently thrown into a panic by their own 

 actions. The sudden alighting of a bird, or a fight between two, 

 would frighten one, who, not waiting to see what was the trouble, 

 would take wing, followed by one after another as the panic-formed 

 wave swept over the island, leaving it almost bare of gulls. Fortu- 

 nately they quickly recovered and returned, but their alertness 

 and the frequent 'wak-wak, wak, wok' of their note of suspicion 

 showed that something bothered them. Apparently the departure 

 of two people and the boat the first visit had deceived them into 

 thinking that all had left the island, while on the second trip, 

 although I had disappeared, yet no one had left the island, and for 

 thirteen hours they remembered this and were suspicious. After 

 the first gull lit on the tent they abandoned their suspicions and 

 were as familiar with it as on the previous day." 



A small folding camp chair w^as found a great convenience, but 

 boxes are often available on a beach and these serve very well as a 

 seat. 



Two cameras were used, one a 5 X 7 Graphlex with a Tessar 



1 Ward, H. L. Notes of the Herring Gull and the Caspian Tern. Bull. Wis- 

 consin Nat. Hist. Soc, Vol. IV, No. 4, October, 1906, pp. 113-134, 2 plates. 



