104 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Maj. G. Ealph Mayer, United States Army, contributes the fol- 

 lowing description of the nesting colony at Great Duck Island, 

 Maine, which he visited on June 20, 1913 : 



Great Duck Island is about 2 miles long and from three-fourths to 1 mile 

 wide at' its greatest width. The gulls' nesting ground extends clear across the 

 island in the open rocky ground and even back into the edge of the woods 

 among the second or third growth. The nests are placed almost anywhere, 

 though usually against a tree, trunk or stump. Some are placed among the 

 rocks along the shore. There are three nesting trees on the island. The 

 greater part of the nesting ground has a peculiar soil of rotten vegetable 

 matter and is thickly scattered over with dead trees, standing and fallen. 

 There are probably .4,000 pairs of birds nesting on Great Duck. Little Duck 

 Island, which is about 1 mile north of Great Duck, is the home of about 6,000 

 pairs of the birds. 



The nests, as a general rule, are very rough looking structures, though there 

 are some exceptions. The shape and size varies considerably with the location. 

 The materials used were varied, in one part of the island where chickweed 

 was plentiful this was used to the exclusion of all other materials excepting a 

 few sticks for the base of the nest. On the higher ground the predominating 

 materials were chips and pieces of the dead and rotten trees in the vicinity. 

 Some nests were lined with grasses or feathers; others had no lining what- 

 ever, but were more like mere beds Of chips and decayed vegetable matter. In 

 the Walls of one nest I found a bristle brush of the kind used "in washing 

 bottles. The tree nests were composed of branches and were lined with grasses. 

 Several nests found in the,. woods on Little Duck were composed of sticks and 

 were lined with mosses, principally Usnea longissima, which was very plentiful 

 in the vicinity. These were the best constructed nests I found. In all cases 

 they were larger than those in the open. Mr. Gray, the head light keeper, told 

 me that this was the^Arst year he had seen them nesting in the heavy timber. 



The birds are quite bold in the defense of their breeding grounds. I have 

 repeatedly seen them drive sheep and lambs from the vicinity of the nest, and 

 only once did I see the sheep offer any resistance whatever, and in that case 

 she very quickly decided that it was better to leave the vicinity. On two 

 occasions I was charged by the birds. They did not touch me, but would swoop 

 down straight at me until from 15 to 25 feet from me and directly overhead, 

 when they would go up almost vertically and circling back, repeat the per- 

 formance. When passing overhead they would utter their piercing " kee-ew." 

 It was really exciting at times to see the bird heading directly at me and 

 coming so fast. Mr. Gray told me that they made little attempt, however, to 

 defend their nests against the crows, and that in some years a great deal of 

 damage was done in this way. I watched the birds for some time from a tent. 

 My notes show that six minutes after I entered the tent the birds had quieted 

 down. I noticed one bird picking up nesting material several times, but it 

 appeared to be a nervous action rather than a desire to collect nest material. 

 Several times the birds had fights, in which each got hold of the other's bill 

 and pulled. 



The following, taken from my "notebook, was written about 5 p. m. on a 

 clear, bright day: 



This is one of the most wonderful sights I have ever witnessed. The air 

 is literally full of gulls. In sight there must be at least 4,000 gulls and all 

 screaming. It is a weird sound. The air is so full of them that it looks like 



