THE CALIFORNIA MURRE AT HOME 267 



that the only locaHties on the Cahfornia coast where sea-Uons 

 are now safe from annihilation are the light-house reserva- 

 tions, the most important of which are the Farallones. 



The following vivid pen-picture of the California Murre 

 at home, on Hall Island, Bering Sea, Alaska, is from the 

 pen of Mr. John Burroughs ("Harriman Alaska Expedition," 

 p. 109): 



The first thing that attracted our attention was the Murres — " urries " 

 the Aleuts call them — about their rookeries on the cliffs. Their numbers 

 darkened the air. As we approached, the faces of the rocks seemed paved 

 with them, with a sprinkling of gulls, puffins, black cormorants and auk- 

 lets. 



On landing at a break in the cliffs where a little creek came down to 

 the sea, our first impulse was to walk along the brink and look down 

 upon the Murres, and see them swarm out beneath our feet. On the 

 discharge of a gun, the air would be black with them, while the cliffs 

 apparently remained as populous as ever. They sat on little shelves, 

 or niches, with their black backs to the sea, each bird covering one egg 

 with its tail-feathers. In places one could have reached down and seized 

 them by the neck, they were so tame and so near the top of the rocks. 

 I believe one of our party did actually thus procure a specimen. It was 

 a strange spectacle, and we lingered long looking upon it. To behold 

 sea-fowls like flies, in uncounted millions, was a new experience. 



Everywhere in Bering Sea the Murres swarm like vermin. It seems 

 as if there was a Murre to every square yard of surface. They were 

 flying about over the ship, or flapping over the water away from her front 

 at all times. I noticed that they could not get up from the water except 

 against the wind; the wind lifted them as it does a kite. With the wind, 

 or in a calm, they skimmed along on the surface, their heads bent forward, 

 their wings beating the water impatiently. Unable to rise, they would 

 glance behind them in a frightened manner, then plunge beneath the waves 

 until they thought the danger had passed. Their tails are so short that, 

 in flying, their two red feet stretched behind them to do the duty of a tail. 



Mrs. Florence Merriam Bailey says that "When incubating 

 one bird stays on the nest during the day, and the other dur- 

 ing the night, and when the exchange is made a great commo- 



