AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



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ers on the rocks we could soon hear strange sounds; as we continued, 

 these sounds grew louder and louder, sounding like crowds of people 

 cheering, dogs barking, college yells, barnyard fowls or in fact most any- 

 thing that the fancy dictated. Of course we knew it could not come from 

 but one source, the Gulls, and as we approached every rise of ground we 

 fully expected to see the great white birds on the other side but instead 

 would be greeted by a still louder volume of sound from beyond the 

 next hill. 



Photo by Bernice Crowell. 

 EGGS AND YOUNG OF HERRING GULL. 



(Showing the beautiful spotted downy plumage.) 



Finally as we forced our way through a dense thicket of pines we be- 

 held the foremost ranks of the largest of the two colonies on the island. 

 For a number of minutes we stood in the shadows of the trees watching 

 them. Many were circling about in the air uttering their harsh, noisy 

 and varied cries, but the majority, seeing no cause for alarm were either 

 perched on the dead pine stumps or walking about on the ground. 



Of those that were standing on the trees a large number held their 

 wings outspread, facing the wind, as though, even while at rest, they 

 delighted in feeling the rush of air beneath them. Their buoyancy was 

 shown at times when a heavier gust of wind came, for they would al- 

 most be lifted bodily into the air; they might easily have varied their 

 angle and sailed aloft without a visible movement of their powerful 

 wings. Those on the ground seemed to be walking aimlessly about in 



