The Western Gulls 



rapacious beak is to burrow under ground or to file into crevices. And 

 at that Anthony tells us: 1 "I have seen a Western Gull pull a Cassin's 

 Auklet from a somewhat more shallow burrow than the usual and swallow 

 it whole with the same gusto and apparent relish with which it bolted 

 the egg a moment later." A bird which can swallow an adult Cassin 

 Auklet, a bird with a body fully as large as that of a robin, can make away 

 with young murres and baby shags at an alarming rate. As a conse- 

 quence, the murre ledges are repeatedly attacked and sometimes pillaged, 

 in spite of the fact that the attendant parents huddle together in actual 

 contact. The case with the cormorant is even more desperate, especially 

 when the visit of a fisherman or a birdman puts the shags to flight. As 

 Anthony says again: 2 "The advent of man in the region of a cormorant 

 rookery is hailed with delight by every gull on the island ; but to the poor 

 cormorant it is a calamity of the deepest hue. As the frightened birds 

 leave the nests, which have so far never been for a moment left without 

 the protection of at least one of the parents, the screaming gulls descend 

 in swarms to break and eat the eggs or kill the young as the case may be. 

 Small cormorants are bolted entire despite their somewhat half-hearted 



^'Random Notes on Pacific 

 Coast Gulls" by A. W. Anthonv. 



! Auk, Vol. XXIII., April, 

 1906. pp. 135, 136. 



1384 



Photo by the Author 



GULLS AT REDONDO 



CHIEFLY IMMATURE WESTERNS 



