THE WHITE -WINGED FLEET 



mam 



the firm, spreading tops that grew into an almost 

 solid platform. 



By September the breeding season is nominally 

 over, but on account of the pillaging of nests by 

 fishermen, there were still a considerable number 



of the young 

 Gulls not yet 

 able to fly. They 

 had all left the 

 nests, having 

 found some way, 

 probably with 

 the parents' 

 help, of de- 

 scending to the 

 ground. It was 

 a comical sight, 

 those odd, mot- 

 tled, p artly 

 downy, partly 

 fledged, web- 

 footed crea- 

 tures, as large as pullets, that were wandering about 

 in the woods everywhere, pattering over the spruce- 

 needle carpet, or else trying to hide by squatting 

 under some bush or thick low growth. All the eggs 

 were hatched that would do so, but now and then we 

 found an addled one in the nest, a great dark drab 

 affair, heavily spotted with black, larger than a hen's 

 egg. I was struck with the similarity of the color 

 and markings of the egg and of the young Gulls. 

 The smaller youngsters looked for all the world like 

 eggs with stilts stuck into them below, and a neck 



135 



ANOTHER STUDY OF THE WESTERN GULL 

 BY OTTO VON BARGEN 



These studies were made in San Francisco harbor, where the 

 large Gulls, as a class ordinarly very wary, have become, 

 through protection, almost fearless of man, especially the imma- 

 ture individuals, which the photographs represent. 



