178 THE CONDOR Vol. XIX 



boat. As one approaches, one is met a mile away by a gull or two circling over- 

 head and screaming vociferously, followed by more and more gulls until the air 

 is filled with a whirling, darting throng of gray and white birds. It is notice- 

 able, here as elsewhere, that gulls are much noisier on the wing than on shore 

 or on water. So alert and so ready are they to announce an intruder that they 

 have well been called "chipmunks of the sea". About a thousand gulls are res- 

 ident in the Yellowstone and practically all of them nest on Molly Island. Their 

 nests are scattered in among those of the pelicans, but the gulls prefer the high- 

 er parts as a rule and leave the lower beaches to the larger birds. The nests of 

 the gulls are a little the more pretentious,* being formed roughly of grass stems 

 with from one to three rather dark lavender eggs marked with black in an ir- 

 regular manner. The gulls begin nesting from about May 15 to 25 and often 

 before the ice has left the lake ; the young gulls are hatched early in June, are 

 covered with down of a gray color dotted with black, and are very difficult to 

 see against a background of sand and gravel. They can run about almost as 

 soon as they emerge from the shell, and are so adept at hiding that I did not 

 become aware of their abundance on my first visit. Not until I retired under a 

 blind and the little ones began to respond to the parents' calls did I really begin 

 to see them. The young gulls, themselves, have a shrill, whining call. 



The gulls eat fish that they find dead, sometimes they rob the mergansers 

 before the latter have a chance to swallow their catch ; and many of the gulls 

 resort regularly to the hotel garbage piles. While the bears are present, the 

 birds sweep by in circles uttering their piercing screams ; often they swoop 

 down until they seem to miss the bears' backs by only a few inches. When the 

 bears have satisfied their hunger and leave, the gulls settle down in a white 

 cloud and soon clean up what bruin has left. At times when the gulls were 

 resting on the water, I have seen one jump up two or three feet and plunge for- 

 ward into the water. What they do this for, I cannot tell positively, but they 

 seem to be feeding. 



Most noticeable of the water-birds of the Yellowstone, by virtue of his 

 great beauty either when swimming or when flying past is the White Pelican 

 (Pelecanus erythrbrhynchos) . On the water the pelican is grace personified. 

 With head bent back and close to his shoulders, and with his deep pouch tucked 

 away between chin and throat, he moves majestically along like a ship under 

 full sail. Pure white except for the black wing-tips, he can be seen and recog- 

 nized at an astonishing distance away. In flight, he is still more majestic. The 

 main auto road runs beside the Yellowstone River at one point, and here the 

 birds have become so used to the passing machines that they come near enough 

 for the tourists to admire their great spread of wings (ten feet in some cases) 

 and to hear the soft fluf-fluf of their pinions. The leader of a flock shows even 

 better command than is the case with flying geese. Pelicans fly one behind the 

 other, and, as a rule, vary their flapping flight with short periods of coasting 

 upon deeply bowed wings. At the end of such a period, the leader loses head- 

 way first, possibly because he is subjected to air pressure that his followers do 

 not feel, and recommences his wing-strokes first, followed shortly by the sec- 

 ond bird ; then the third and fourth take up the stroke after accurately timed 

 intervals, and the entire line is finally in full, strong flight with wings beating 

 together perfectly. 



The pelican is an old form of bird-life that has come down to us little 

 changed through long ages ; certainly he existed before the first song-birds as 



