THE GULLS OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY 



CLARENCB E. EDWORDS 



BIRD students who know all about the "Latin parts" of our avifauna 

 have distinctive names for species and families of the picturesque 

 flocks of sea-fowl which have attached themselves to the ferry- 

 boats on San Francisco Bay, but to the ordinary every-day passen- 

 ger they are all "gulls," and if there be any distinction it is solely one of 

 size or color. It must be confessed that a vast majority of people who know 

 and enjoy these birds have no desire to even know their scientific distinction, 

 and it is doubtful if they would obtain as much pleasure from their obser- 

 vations if they could tell the gull from the murre as they do now when 

 they devote their observation entirely to the birds themselves, and not to 

 their family characteristics. 



If I were asked to mention the most striking feature of the bay gulls, I 

 would say without hesitancy that it was the individuality of the flocks 

 and their relation to the different boats. Each ferry-boat that crosses the 

 bay has its particular flock of gulls, and it is one of the peculiarities of 

 these gulls that the flocks never get mixed. I have watched them as two 

 boats met in mid-day, and while the flocks would Intermingle in passing, 

 they always separated and continued with the boat to which they seemed 

 to be attached. This attachment to different boats Is especially noticeable 

 at the piers about the time the boats of the various lines start out. I 

 have seen a large congregation of gulls sitting on the bulkheads just as 

 the boats of the two Oakland lines and the Marin County line were ready 

 to start. There would be a fraction of a minute between the movement 

 of these boats, and it was noticed that as each boat's whistle sounded a 

 different set of birds would stretch their necks, flutter their wings, and 

 prepare for flight. This attachment to special boats or to special lines is 

 so marked that the men employed on the various boats know their birds and 

 can tell when a stranger is in the flock. 



There is a utilitarian side to these gulls of the bay. It is something 

 of a descent from the sublime to the ridiculous to speak of these flocks 

 circling above the water in snowy picturesque groups as scavengers; but 

 that is really their mission on the bay, and so well is this fact recognized 

 that the law, in all its majesty, has stepped in to protect the birds because 

 of their usefulness. Every particle that drops from ship, ferry, or small 

 boat on San Francisco Bay is made subject of investigation by the gulls, 

 and when the meal-hour comes on the ferries these adornments resolve 

 themselves into a committee of the whole, and the waters of the bay are 

 swept clean of every particle of rubbish that is eatable from a gull's stand- 

 point. 



Every one wonders where the gulls sleep and when they go to rest. I 

 have seen them flitting by on shadowy wing as I crossed on the midnight 

 boat on moonlit nights, and there is never boat so early that it is not 

 accompanied by the birds. Their local roosting-places are the tops of the 

 piers and wharves, and their nesting-places out on the rockbound coast 

 and over at the Farallones; but they are birds of unsteady habits, for they 

 certainly do not go to bed at the time when all well-regulated birds are 

 supposed to go. 



IS 



