Observations in a Laughing Gull Colony 



207 



comical impudence in stepping directly past the nest, at scarcely a yard's 

 distance, had thus aroused the very justifiable resentment of the owner. She 

 yelled likewise at the male when the latter dropped down beside the nest; 

 and her vociferations seemed shortly to have the desired effect, for he arose in 

 the air and did not offer to return. I was reminded of a remarkable similar 

 demonstration, which had come to my notice at Gardiner's Island a few weeks 

 previously, on the part of a female Osprey, who by loud screechings had pre- 

 vented her mate from alighting beside her on a boulder-nest while the umbrella 

 tent was in dangerously close proximity. 



At the end of a couple of hours, in hopes of obtaining a still more intimate 

 view of the faithful sitter, I 

 ventured to advance the tent 

 to within fifteen feet of the 

 nest. But, after another hour 

 had elapsed, I had come to 

 the conclusion that the move 

 was unfortunate, for the bird 

 now seemed to balk entirely 

 at the green object looming 

 so uncomfortably near ; more- 

 over, it led eventually, though 

 perhaps indirectly, to the 

 enactment before me of an 

 avian tragedy of a positively 

 startling nature. 



At 5:40 P.M. a Laughing 

 Gull lit on the edge of the 

 nest, and, scarcely pausing for 

 an instant's survey of the 

 surroundings, plunged its bill 

 into the nest with a vicious 

 stroke, accompanied by the 

 audible crash of a breaking 

 eggshell! The act was so sud- 

 den and astonishing, if not 

 entirely unheard of, as to defy explanation for a time, at least. Could this 

 possibly be the owner, who, feeling compelled to desert her home, was there- 

 fore devastating it in a spirit of blind rage? Could it be her mate, so totally 

 devoid of parental instinct as to destroy his own unhatched offspring? ^ Or 

 was it some other member of the colony, a robber or degenerate, taking 

 advantage of the owner's absence to feast with a cannibal's gluttony upon 

 the eggs of its own species? 



Before these questions could be answered, the Gull took sudden alarm and 



THE ROBBER HOVERING OVER THE NEST 



