The California Murre 



days, before oviposition. The egg, so immense for the size of the bird, 

 is matured ashore. Indeed, the weight of the burden often renders the 

 bird quite helpless and unable to fly. My heart ached for some of the 

 mothers who, assaying flight, went bumping and floundering over the 

 rocks instead ; and I greatly fear that once dislodged the gravid female is 

 never able to return with that burden. One caught by hand on level 

 ground, where escape by flight was impossible, we dissected. The egg 

 was placed in the oviduct little end down and must have been quite ready 

 for extrusion. The pigment, although "wet," soon dried, and the egg 

 cannot be told today from one taken from the ledge. But our chief 

 curiosity was as to the development of the other ova. There was no sign 

 whatever of activity, and the second in succession could not have been 

 picked out from among 

 her tiny sisters. Yet it 

 is perfectly certain that 

 such a succession had 

 been designated, and 

 that in the event of dis- 

 aster to the first, another 

 candidate would have 

 been put upon the ways 

 and rushed to comple- 

 tion within three or four 

 weeks. 



But lest we should 

 overemphasize the de- 

 structiveness of the Gull, 

 I will quote a page from 

 field notes made on the 

 spot: "California Murre, 

 Farallon Ids., June i, 

 1911. After all , the 

 gulls do seem to have 

 a certain respect for a 

 Murre beak, especially 

 when wielded in a right- 

 eous cause. The Murre 

 colony, which occupies 

 a certain outlier on the 

 north side of the west 

 end, is of the timid sort 

 and as often as a human 



AN OIL-SOAKED MURRE 



ISO 



J U J 



