The Old Maid" Gull 



35i 



the quarrelsome Gull seemed to have set apart for her own. One day she was 

 routed, however, by the union of forces of two of those Mergansers. They 

 were some distance apart, and "The Old Maid" had been making alternate 

 attacks upon them and had driven them quite a distance out upon the lake. 

 Then she settled herself upon the water for a rest. The two Fish Ducks came 

 together and, seemingly by common consent, swam rapidly in her direction. 

 She did not see them until they were upon her, and before she arose she received 

 a sharp stroke from the bill of one of the Ducks. It must have sapped a little 

 of her courage, for she did not renew the attack and commenced to sound her 

 alarm note. It was but a few minutes afterward, however, when she was 

 seen in pursuit of a Great Blue Heron, which she had discovered perching in 

 one of the large trees close to the wreck. 



And so the summer passed — the Gull always on the offensive and bellig- 

 erently on the lookout for invaders. I often tried to take her by surprise 

 and so discover any nesting-place she might possibly have, but always she 

 seemed to come from the water or from a large rock a little distance beyond 

 the wreck. My failures led me to accept the belief of the students that the Gull 

 was insane, and oppressed by the delusion that she had a home and family 

 when she had none. 



But one morning, a few days before we broke camp, I discovered that our 

 opinions were wrong and that we had misjudged her, for out from under the 

 wreck swam a young Gull of several weeks' growth, and attended by the fond 

 mother, no longer "The Old Maid." 



She was no less quarrelsome, however, and on this occasion she was aided 

 in her defensive efforts by the Gulls that had heretofore seemed to ignore her. 

 I permitted her to teach the Gull-child the world's mysteries without molesta- 

 tion from me, and the site of her nest remains unknown. 



