The Glaucous-winged Gull 



the major emotions. This fact was forced home upon the writer only 

 when he lay in camp, a voluntary Crusoe for a week, on a bird rock of 

 lower Puget Sound. Here, since there was nothing to be heard save the 

 murmuring of the sea, the hissing of Pigeon Guillemots, and the notes of 

 the Glaucous-winged Gulls, it is not surprising that the last-named began 

 to fall into some sort of order, with dawning significances as the week 

 drew to its close. At the risk of wearying the reader, since the experience 

 is possibly unique, I venture to enumerate the leading sounds, or phrases, 

 of this little-known gull tongue: 



The beak-quaking notes — harsh, 

 unmusical, and of moderate pitch, 

 used to express distrust and con- 

 tinued disapproval. During 

 delivery the mandibles are 



Taken in Seattle Photo by the Author 



FACING THE TIDE 



brought together three or four 

 times in moderate succession. This 

 is the ordinary scolding, or distress 

 cry, of characteristic and uniform pitch, save that it is raised to a higher 

 key when the speaker becomes vehement. The phrase varies from three to 

 five notes, and is uttered in the following cadences : kak'-ako'; ka ka, ka 

 ka; ka' ka kaka' ; kakak' , ka' kakak' ; kak'-akak'-a-ka. 



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