BIRDS FOUND NEAR SHORE OR IN BAYS 33 



Breeding Season . Approximately, May 1 to August 1. 



Nest: A bare slight depression in the ground near shore, or a rude 



affair of seaweeds and grass on shelving rocks or cliffs. 

 Eggs : 2 to 4 ; from dark olive to white, spotted with light brown and 



umber. Size 2.88 X 2.03. 



The Glaucous-winged Gull is one of the most numer- 

 ous birds on the California coast. Mr. Leverett M. 

 Loomis writes of it at Monterey in midwinter as follows : 



"Whales frequently came into the bay. Often they 

 would be attended by a great train of gulls and pelicans 

 'feeding upon the slop-over' ... In Carmel Valley 

 near the ocean I found them [the Glaucous-winged 

 Gulls] in company with Western gulls following the 

 plough as robins do in the spring in South Carolina. 

 The tameness and familiarity of the water birds on this 

 coast strikingly contrast with the wariness of those of 

 the North Atlantic."- 



This gull may be known from the others by the long 

 wing-quills of slate-gray tipped with white. Its winter 

 range does not extend so far south as that of some of 

 its congeners, but it is reported all along the California 

 coast from Monterey northward. In nesting habits the 

 Glaucous-winged Gulls resemble the Western gulls ; the 

 newly hatched Glaucous-winged are the softest, downiest 

 nestlings imaginable. They are fed upon small fish, refuse 

 from salmon canneries, — -which the parents fly miles to 

 obtain, — and small mollusks. 



