THE MUKRES 



303 



game. There are dozens of birds there which 

 we would gladly introduce to the reader, but 

 owing to uncontrollable limitations, only the 

 most interesting examples can be accorded 

 space. 



Of all arctic and northern sea-birds, the 

 California Murre 1 (pronounced mur) deserves 

 to be mentioned first, for the reason that it is 

 and ever has been most in the public eye. This 

 is really a subspecies of the Common Murre 2 

 of the North Atlantic, which nests on Bird 

 Rocks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and some- 

 times comes as far south as Massachusetts. 

 There is another North Atlantic species, called 

 Brunnich's Murre, 3 also nesting on Bird Rocks, 

 which occasionally strays down to Long Island. 

 Both the Atlantic species are black above, and 

 white underneath. 



The California Murre is the bird which once 

 nested on the Farallone Islands, about thirty- 

 five miles west of San Francisco, in countless 

 thousands, and furnished between 1880 and 

 1890, according to Mr. W. E. Bryant, from 

 180,000 to 228,000 eggs per annum to the San 

 Francisco market. Like true Americans, the 

 eggers always endeavored to make " a clean 

 sweep," regardless of the future of the rookery, 

 and under their ministrations the Murres rap- 

 idly declined in number. 



Finally an appeal was made to the United 

 States Light-House Board. The admirable rec- 

 ord of that body in the preservation of wild life 

 was sustained by an order which at once put 

 a stop to all egg-gathering on the Farallones. 

 It has already been noted in the chapter on 

 seals and sea-lions that the only localities on 

 the California coast where sea-lions are now 

 safe from annihilation are the light-house reser- 

 vations, the most important of which are the 

 Farallones. 



The following vivid pen-picture of the Cali- 

 fornia Murre at home, on Hall Island, Bering 

 Sea, Alaska, is from the pen of Mr. John Bur- 

 roughs (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 num- 

 bers darkened the air. As we approached, 

 the faces of the rocks seemed paved with them, 



1 U'ri-a tro'i-le californica. 2 U. tfoile. 



3 U. lom'vi-a. 



with a sprinkling of gulls, puffins, black cor- 

 morants and auklets. 



"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 clown 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 un- 

 counted 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 during the night, 

 and when the exchange is made a great com- 

 motion ensues, the air being filled with quar- 

 relling, screaming masses of bird-life." (" Hand- 

 book," p. 17.) 



In its breeding plumage, the California 

 Murre has a jet-black head and neck, the back 

 is dull black, or slate color, and the under parts 

 are white. In winter the sides of the head and 

 throat are white. The range of the species is 

 from California to Hall Island, Bering Sea. 



The Puffins are the clowns of the bird-world. 

 Without exception, they are the drollest-looking 



