THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



Some Kotes on the Western Gull. 



WERE it not for the presence of the 

 Western Gull, bird life on the 

 Farallons would lose much of its 

 interest, and collecting there would be tame 

 indeed in comparison to what it now is. 

 The Gull — pirate that he is — enlivens the 

 scene by his cries as he sails about with 

 Eagle e5'e in quest of unprotected eggs of 

 Murres and Cormorants. 



The nesting habits of this Gull are too 

 well known to bear a description. I believe 

 there is but one real rookery of these birds 

 on the island, though they nest promiscu- 

 ously in pairs all over the island. The 

 rookery covers a fiat area of several acres at 

 the west end, and the nests are placed close 

 together. It is most interesting to gather a 

 series of sets, so great is the variation in 

 ground colors and markings. From one 

 nest I took a set of three eggs, two of which 

 were of the usual color, while the third 

 might almost be classed as white, although 

 it is lightl)^ marked in places with a few 

 light-lilac blotches. 



One Gull which I noticed had thought- 

 fully (?) placed her nest beneath an arch 

 formed by two large boulders toiiching at 

 the top, thus escaping the rays of the sun. 



The Gulls follow the eggers as they ap- 

 proach the Murre rookeries and add to the 



din produced by the Murres, and when the 

 latter have left their eggs it takes some 

 livel}^ scrambling for the eggers to secure 

 the eggs. If a Gull can see an unprotected 

 egg he will alight, take it in his beak and 

 Q.y away with it, to feast on it at leisure. 



The Gulls secure a large part of their liv- 

 ing from the Cormorant rookeries, as the 

 Cormorant takes wing when the eggers pass 

 by, and in an instant the Gulls are scattered 

 about among the nests, forcing their beaks 

 through the brittle shells, sucking out the 

 contents. It is said the eggs of the Cormo- 

 rant will not coagulate by boiling. 



Owing to the piratical instincts of Lams 

 the inhabitants of the island lose no oppor- 

 tunity to wreak vengeance upon him. 

 Eggs are taken from the nests and broken 

 upon the rocks, and many a young Gull has 

 met its fate by being dashed down a cliff. 



The young Gulls when two or three 

 weeks old are very pretty, being mottled all 

 over with black and white. The accom- 

 panying illustration serves to show this 

 plumage. It is a view of a t5'pical nest in 

 which were two young and a presumably 

 addled ^^Z- 



I was recently so fortunate as to secure a 

 young Gull from the islands, and am look- 

 ing forward to its development with much 

 interest. 



C. Bari^ow. 



Santa Clara, Cal. 



Eggs oft the White-throated Sioift. 



IN Dr. Shufeldt's paper on the "Com- 

 parative Oology of* North American 

 Birds," of which a notice appeared in 

 the August issue of The Nidiologist, oc- 

 curs the following paragraph: "In another 

 suborder, the Cypseli, we are still ignorant 

 of the character of the eggs of several of the 

 species, but those of Chcehira pelagica are 

 well known. In that species from four to 

 five are usually in a set. They are pure 

 white, and narrowly elliptical in shape. 

 The eggs of Cypseloides mger have as yet 



