172 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XIII 
and others. A salute of seventeen hundred Murres was fired upon our arrival (only 
the east battery participating, however); and we were introduced to the fourteen 
Farallonians, from Mr. Rosendale, the able head keeper, to baby ‘ ‘Snoozer” Cobb, the 
idol of the thirteen grown ups. But the birds ! They are the real proprietors. The 
pungent odor of guano smites the nostrils at six cable-lengths remove; while ashore 
it is fairly stifling to the novice. From pinnacle and arch and ledge comes the faint 
uproar of the Murres, alwa3"s crowding, bowing, craning, gabbling; “sea pigeons’’ 
hiss and “sea parrots” flit by in silent platoons; while over all rises the discordant 
scream of the sea gull, the irrepressible, the irreconcilable, the insatiable Western Gull. 
Humans sit only by sufferance on the edge of this avian volcano, while every- 
where, by day or night, birds shift and seethe and gyrate in multitudinous kaleido- 
scopic succession. Birds — — BIRDS. It is a sight to be remembered, and 
no enthusiasm of utterance on the part of visitors can quite spoil it for you when 
your turn comes. 
Fig. 49. IN .\NGRV MOOD 
I.OOKING NORTHE.-\ST Taw.-^RD SUG.\RLO.\F 
The weather was charming the first day or so. Not a breath of air stirred, and 
the sun was burning bright, — insomuch that a mere gross of photographic plates 
looked insignificant beside the boundless opportunity. But on the third day the 
northwest wind tuned up. It blew with steadily increasing pressure until photog- 
raphy was not to be thought of, and out-of-door study of any sort became a test of 
endurance. The mercury registered 48° at night and rose to 52° daytimes. After 
eight days the north wind fell and we had dull weather from the southwest. This 
brought the migrants, a motley and a woe-begone company. There is no cover on 
the island save a bit of a grove of Monterey cypress near the siren, and a hedge 
about a tiny garden in the keeper’s yard. Yet, misguided and bewildered, the frail 
creatures came, day after day, Alaskan migrants, wanderers from the mainland, and 
exiles from the far East. The occurrence of unusual eastern forms has been noted 
on these islands before. Indeed, at the present rate it would not be surprising if 
