■ A GULL ISLAND 



The Herring Gull on Lake Superior 



By BAYARD H. CHRISTY and NORMAN McCLINTQCK 



With photographs from nature by the authors 



THE Herring Gull is the common Gull of our northern coasts, lakes 

 and rivers. South of Maine, northern New York and the Great 

 Lake region, the Herring Gull is usually seen in winter only. 

 Therefore it is characterized in some southern localities as Winter Gull, 

 in contradistinction to the Summer or Laughing Gull. 



A large colony of Herring Gulls now breeds undisturbed upon an in- 

 accessible small group of about half a dozen granitic islands, extending east 

 and west, and lying some two or three miles off the south shore of Lake 

 Superior. The larger islands of the group rise two hundred to three hundred 

 feet above the lake and are wooded. The smaller islands, which are the 

 most easterly, are mere low crags that are broken and seamed. All the 

 islands are heavily glaciated. 



Upon July 22, 1903, we visited one of these smaller islands, which is 

 about one hundred yards long, less than half as wide and scarcely twenty 

 feet high. The vegetation is limited to lichens, grasses and srnall plants, 

 which find but scant rooting in the crannies. Here the accompanying 

 photographs were taken, excepting that of the flying Gulls, which was ob- 

 tained on the St. Mary's river. 



From a distance, the island was seen to be dotted white with several 

 hundred of these beautiful Gulls, which rose as we approached and, 

 screaming constantly, kept circling overhead, while we remained. 



Upon our landing, a number of young Gulls, unable to fly, went 

 scrambling and tumbling down the rocks, and swam several hundred yards 

 out into the lake, to where a number of the old birds had settled down. 

 Occasionally, one of the parent birds, whose young we disturbed, would 

 swoop down close to our heads. 



We found a dozen or twenty nests, which were placed wherever a broad 

 level surface afforded a site upon the higher portions of the rocks. 



These nests were composed of dried grass and pine needles and a few 



(86) 



