BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION OF THE COMMON MURRE 95 



increased when sold away from the market and were as 

 high as $6-9 per dozen. Nordhoff (1874) reported that 

 about 360,000 eggs were shipped in one season in the 

 early years. Ainley and Lewis (1974) reported an 

 estimate of about 400,000 breeding birds for 1854 at 

 the South Farallon Islands, based on an approximate 

 400,000 eggs removed per year and one egg laid per 

 breeding pair per year (Ainley and Boekelheide 1990). 

 This estimate should have been 800,000 breeding birds 

 by my calculations without accounting for lost or broken 

 eggs (i.e., 400.000 eggs with two adults per breeding 

 pair and one egg laid per breeding pair per year). 

 However, many eggs probably were replaced at least 

 once. Therefore, 400,000 breeding birds may be 

 reasonable, assuming an average of one replacement 

 egg per first egg laid. On the other hand, Ayers reported 

 over 500,000 eggs were harvested in 1854 on a limited 

 portion of South Farallon Island and "in the opinion of 

 the eggers, not more than one egg in six of those 

 deposited on that island was gathered" (Loomis 18%). 

 This statement does not suggest careful accounting, 

 eggers may have been "defending" their practice with 

 such a statement and few areas of the islands were 

 inaccessible to eggers. As many as three million eggs 

 could have been laid, which could correspond to a much 

 higher colony size for the early 1 850s of at least 6 million 

 breeding birds. Such an estimate assumes only one egg 

 laid per breeding pair and includes eggs lost or destroyed 

 before shipping. If one replacement egg per first egg 

 was laid, then an estimate of 3 million breeding birds 

 emerges. In my opinion, the historical colony size prior 

 to European, Asian, and Alaskan contact in the early 

 nineteenth century probably was between 1 and 3 

 million breeding birds. Major factors that I considered 

 in arriving at this general estimate were ( 1 ) the lower 

 end of the range 1 million should be much higher 

 than the previous estimate of 400.000 breeding birds in 

 the 1850s, given substantial reduction because of 

 egging, hunting and other disruptions from 1812 to 

 1838; (2) insufficient information was provided in 

 historical accounts to determine how many eggs 

 probably a substantial number were not collected of 

 those laid in the 1 850s; and (3) the nature of historical 

 information prevents determination of a more exact 

 estimate within this range. It is unclear exactly how 

 such large numbers of murres. other seabirds. and marine 

 mammals shared available space at these islands. Earlier 

 removal of marine mammals also may have benefitted 

 murres by increasing available breeding space (D. G. 

 Ainley. personal communication). 



After island visits in 1 862 and later. Gruber reported 

 that 240,000-300,000 eggs were harvested for many 

 years and first sold for S0.50 per dozen and later at 



$0.25-0.30 per dozen in the market at San Francisco 

 (Gruber 1884; Grinnell 1926). However, it is unclear 

 what years Gruber was referring to because the article 

 was published in 1 884. By 1 872 and 1 873. respectively, 

 215,424 and 182,436 eggs were collected (Nordhoff 

 1874). Nordhoff (1874) determined that over 100,000 

 murres bred at the South Farallon Islands at this time by 

 "allowing half a dozen to each murre, this would give 

 nearly 36,000 [breeding pairs] . . . adding the proper 

 number for eggs broken, destroyed by gulls, and not 

 gathered . . ." Murre eggs were collected daily from May 

 to July and thus were removed shortly after laying. 

 Whereas murres were known or thought to continue 

 laying after egg removal, it is unlikely that individual 

 females laid 6-8 eggs as claimed by the egging 

 company, and the murre colony probably was much 

 larger than thought by Nordhoff. Eggs were sold for 

 $0.26 per dozen in 1873 (Nordhoff 1874). Scammon 

 (1875) reported that 300.000 eggs were shipped to San 

 Francisco each year and that eggs were gathered from 

 the same breeding places only two or three times per 

 season. Doughty ( 1 97 1 ) used Scammon's 300.000 eggs 

 each year as the annual harvest level from 1 857 to 1 87 1 . 

 Nordhoff was assured by the manager of the egg 

 company that there had been "no sensible decrease in 

 the number of birds or eggs for twenty years" but fewer 

 eggs in fact were being harvested by this time. By 

 allowing some birds to breed successfully at the end of 

 the season, eggers had wrongly thought that they had 

 ensured adequate production of murres to continue the 

 egging business. From 1874 to 1883. about 180.000 

 eggs were harvested annually (Emerson 1904). 



Commercial egging by the Farallone Egg Company 

 ended in 1881 when company workers were removed 

 from the island by a U.S. Marshall and soldiers because 

 of difficulties with the lighthouse keepers and a long- 

 term dispute over company egging rights with the federal 

 government. A lighthouse had been erected in 1853 

 and the islands had been reserved for lighthouse 

 purposes in 1851, a fact further substantiated by 

 President Buchanan in 1859 after a legal challenge 

 (Doughty 1971; White 1995). 



Continued Egging and Other Human Impacts 

 on the Farallon Islands (1882-1904) 



Egging by lighthouse keepers and Greek and Italian 

 fishermen continued beyond 1881 (Bryant 1888; 

 Blankenship and Keeler 1892; Greene 1892). Greek and 

 Italian immigrants formed much of the local fishing 

 community in San Francisco at this time (Daskarolis 

 1981 ). The retail price of eggs had fallen to $0.12-0.25 

 per dozen (Bryant 1888: Greene 1892). In 1884, 300,000 

 eggs were harvested and between 180.000 and 228,000 



