Reports of Special Agents 321 



My estimate of the number of the smaller or eastern colonies is fifteen hun- 

 dred to two thousand at each, Old Man and Brothers, eight hundred at Pulpit 

 Rock, and four thousand at Cone Island. 



The area occupied as breeding stations by the birds just enumerated has its 

 extremities thirty-two miles asunder, with a possible feeding range of sixty miles, 

 east to west, without encroaching upon the feeding-grounds of any other colonies. 

 The colonies of Cone Island and the Brothers show the most remarkable increase 

 in the total number of adult birds; and it is certain that the breeding birds have 

 increased at both places, though much more at Cone Island. The number of 

 adult birds at Great Duck Island, one of the most securely orotected colonies 

 on the coast, seemed noticeably less than on my last visit. 



It is worthy of note, in this connection, that the number of Gulls spending 

 the summer west of Pemoquid this year is much smaller than at any correspond- 

 ing season for the past four years. On all of the breeding grounds the birds 

 are tame; nowhere did I see evidence of molestation by man. 



At Old Man and Brothers the breeding season seemed much later than 

 elsewhere, many young being just hatched, and some of the occupied nests 

 were just hatching. At Cone Island the season seemed to correspond with the 

 western colonies. With the exception of the Old Man, at all of the colonies 

 considerable mortality was noticed among the young, probably due to the causes 

 which have affected the Terns. 



The Gulls are tame and unsuspicous; their young hatch at a seasonable 

 time, and they are occupied with feeding them rather than with remating and 

 trying all summer to breed. While we now have several very large colonies of Gulls, 

 it should be borne in mind that, previous to 1900, many smaller ones existed. 

 There are now considerably fewer colonies than there were previous to the move- 

 ment to preserve the birds. They now lead normal lives, and it seems certain 

 that they have reached the state of abundance where their competition with 

 natural checks is much more severe. With the increase of birds at any colony, 

 the supply of food must be sought at greater distances, causing greater exposure 

 of eggs and young to the elements and to predaceous animals. Several checks 

 are evident and operative, and the idea that the birds are about to overrun all 

 bounds, as claimed by a small party, is plainly fallacious. Crows are notorious 

 robbers and destroyers of eggs and young birds, including Terns, and why not 

 of Gulls. 



Terns are much more agile in the defence of their nests and young, yet with 

 them the cunning of the Crow often prevails. Captain Stanley, of Duck Island 

 Station, told me that the day before my visit an Eagle had visited his colony 

 and been seen to kill two old Gulls. At the Brothers a magnificent individual 

 of the Peregrine Falcon was seen, and evidences of several feasts on Petrel were 

 discovered. Young Gulls must have been entirely at his mercy. Ravens are 

 numerous enough in all the section inhabited by Gulls in this state to serve as 

 a factor in holding them in check. 



