ZOOLOGY. 139 
hack. The meat of the latter has not so fine a flavor as in the 
Eastern states, probably because it does not here find the wild 
celery upon which it feeds along the streams of the middle 
states. 
Many of the geese and ducks pass the winter in California, 
where they find an abundance of food in the grain-fields and 
tules, 
The murre, or foolish guillemot (Uria ringvin), is similar to 
the gulls, seventeen inches long, dark-brown above and white 
beneath, with transverse stripes of ashy-brown on its sides. Its 
throat is brown in summer and white in winter. It frequents 
the islands along the coast, and lays its eggs there on the bare 
ground or rocks. These eggs are wonderfully irregular in 
form, size, and color, but are generally about three and a half 
inches long, sea-green in color, with dark-brown spots of angu- 
lar shapes on them. Quantities of these eggs are obtained ev- 
ery year at the Farallones, and are sold in the San Francisco 
market at about half the price of hen’s eggs per dozen, or, if 
taken by weight, at one-fourth. Their taste, however, is rank, 
and they are not used by those who can afford to buy the 
hen’s eggs. 
Dr. Heermann says: “ At one o’clock every day during the 
egg season, Sundays and Thursdays excepted (this is to give 
the birds some little respite), the egg-hunters meet on the 
south side of the island. The roll is called, to see that all are 
present, that each one may have an equal chance in gathering 
the spoil. The signal is given, every man starting off at a full 
run for the most productive egging-grounds. The gulls (Larus 
occidentalis, Western gull), understanding, apparently, what is 
about to occur, are on the alert, hovering overhead, and avwait- 
ing only the advance of the party. The men rush eagerly into 
the rookeries; the affrighted murres have scarcely risen from 
their nests, before the gull, with remarkable instinct, not to 
say almost reason, flying but a few paces ahead of the hunter, 
alights on the ground, tapping such eggs as the short time 
will allow, hefore the egger comes up with him. The broken 
