368 AUDUBON 



same size, white, and with the same hoarse note, were 

 to be seen, but they had no nests; these, I am inclined 

 to think (at present) the bird called Larus argentatus 

 (Herring Gull), which is simply the immature bird of 

 Larus marinus.^ I am the more led to believe this be- 

 cause, knowing the tyrannical disposition of the L. mar- 

 inus, I am sure they would not suffer a species almost as 

 powerful as themselves in their immediate neighborhood. 

 They fly altogether, but the white ones do not alight on 

 the rocks where the Marinus has its nests. John watched 

 their motion and their cry very closely, and gave me this 

 information. Two eggs of a Tern,^ resembling the Cay- 

 enne Tern, were found in a nest on the rocks, made of 

 moss also, but the birds, although the eggs were nearly 

 ready to hatch, kept out of gunshot. These eggs meas- 

 ured one and a half inches in length, very oval, whitish, 

 spotted and dotted irregularly with brown and black all 

 over. The cry of those Terns which /saw this afternoon 

 resembles that of the Cayenne Tern that I met with in 

 the Floridas, and I could see a large orange bill, but 

 could not discern the black feet. Many nests of the 

 Great Tern {Sterna hirundo) were found — two eggs in 

 each, laid on the short grass scratched out, but no nest. 

 One Tringa pusilla [minutilld], the smallest I ever saw, 

 was procured; these small gentry are puzzles indeed; I 

 do not mean to say in nature, but in Charles's^ Synopsis. 

 We went ashore this afternoon and made a Bear trap with 

 a gun, baited with heads and entrails of codfish. Bruin 

 having been seen within a few hundred yards of where the 

 lure now lies in wait. It is truly interesting to see the 

 activity of the cod-fishermen about us, but I will write of 

 this when I know more of their filthy business. 



1 A mistake, which Audubon later corrected. The Herring Gull is of 

 course quite distinct from the Black-backed. The former is of the variety 

 called by me Larus argentatus smitksonianus, as it difEers in some respects 

 from the common Herring Gull of Europe, — E. C. 



2 Perhaps Forster's Tern, Sterna forsteri. — E. C. 

 * Charles Lucien Bonaparte. 



