142 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Mr. Roderick McFarlane (1891), who collected many sets of 

 eggs in the Anderson River region, says : 



Its nest is usually a small cavity in the sand by the side of a stream or a 

 sheet of water ; but it also frequently builds on a stump or tree, and in such 

 cases dry twigs, hay, and mosses, are used in its construction. The parents do 

 their utmost to drive away intruders. 



Eggs. — The short-billed gull ordinarily lays three eggs, but often 

 only two. They are ovate or short ovate in shape; usually the 

 former. The ground color varies from " Saccardo's umber " or " Isa- 

 bella color " to "olive buff." The eggs are spotted and blotched 

 evenly or irregularly or in a wreath near the larger end, with the 

 darker shades of brown, such as " bone brown," " bister," " sepia," or 

 "snuff brown"; also with various shades of "brownish drab." 

 Sometimes the eggs are finely scrawled. The measurements of 40 

 eggs, in the United States National Museum average 57 by 41 milli- 

 meters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 63 by 41.5. 

 58.5 by 43, 50.5 by 40.5, and 51.5 by 37 millimeters. 



Plumages. — The young, when first hatched, is well covered with a 

 warm coat of soft, thick down, " pale drab-gray " to " pale smoke- 

 gray " on the upper parts, sides, and throat; "pale pinkish buff" 

 on the breast and belly ; and tinged with the latter color on the sides 

 of the head and neck. The frontal and loral region is clear black. 

 The sides of the head and neck are boldly and clearly spotted with 

 black in a very distinct pattern, the spots coalescing into an indis- 

 tinct Y on the crown; an irregular W on the occiput; a large, dis- 

 tinct crescent on the cervix; and a small crescent on the throat. 

 The remainder of the upper parts are heavily but less distinctly 

 mottled with duller black, becoming grayer posteriorly. The under 

 parts are unspotted. 



I have not seen any specimens showing the development of the 

 first plumage from the downy stage, but I have a good series of 

 young birds collected in August. This plumage shows considerable 

 individual variation, but is always more or less heavily mottled both 

 above and below. Often the throat, and sometimes the belly, is 

 nearly or quite immaculate white ; sometimes the entire under parts, 

 below the throat, as well as the neck and head, are uniform " drab- 

 gray," or "vinaceous gray," and always these parts are heavily 

 clouded with these colors. The feathers of the back, scapulars, and 

 wing-coverts are centrally dusky and broadly edged with pale-grayish 

 buff; the primaries are uniformly dusky; the rectrices are basally 

 gray, somewhat mottled, with nearly the terminal half dusky, and 

 white-tipped. From this plumage the progress toward maturity be- 

 gins early and continues all through the first year, by fading, wear, 

 and molt. The "gull gray" of the mantle sometimes begins to 

 appear in November, and by April or May this color predominates 



