BIRDS FROM THE FARALLON ISLANDS. 37 



6. Larus occidentalis. 



Western Gull. — This is the only gull which breeds on 

 the Farallon Islands, and eggs of other species, such as 

 California gull and American herring gull, purporting to have 

 been collected there, have undoubtedly been wrongly iden- 

 tified. In numbers the gulls rank about second during the 

 summer. In winter they distribute themselves along the 

 coast and into San Francisco Bay, congregating at the 

 island by the first of April. The gulls are indiscriminate 

 feeders; in addition to their usual articles of diet, they sub- 

 sist largely upon eggs during the summer. They do not eat 

 the eggs of their own species, nor do they trouble the cor- 

 morants after the murres have commmenced laying. Sea 

 urchins, crabs, young murres and rabbits, and fish stolen 

 from the cormorants' nests are eaten. Not bein^' quick 

 enough to swoop upon the rabbits, they catch them by pa- 

 tient watching at their burrows, and will patiently try for 

 fifteen minutes to swallow a squealing young rabbit, and 

 finally fly away with the hind feet protruding. The dead 

 bodies of murres are also eaten; they detach pieces of flesh 

 by backing away and dragging the body, meanwhile shaking 

 their heads, till a piece breaks off. A young gull raised 

 by Mrs. Rugg has returned to the island annually for four 

 years; although not tame enough to take food from her 

 hand, he comes to the house and picks up aay scraps of 

 cooked food thrown to him and flies away screaming. He 

 will not take raw meat, and would not eat it when young. 

 He does not appear for food oftener than once a day, and 

 sometimes only once a week. 



They nest in small colonies of ten pairs or less, either on 

 low flats or the high points. Two weeks are occupied in 

 the rebuilding of last year's nests ; on many days they appa- 

 rently do not work at all. Even after the first egg is laid 

 they continue to carry fragments of dry Farallon weed to 

 their nests. The first eggs of the season were taken May 

 9th, in 1885 and 1886, and May 13th, in 1887. The eggers 



