Sept., 1903 | 
THE CONDOR 
125 
It is the same with young birds, whether they be young murres or cormorants — 
the gulls take all they can get. Mr. Fuertes related a case where he inadvertent- 
ly disturbed a rookery of several hundred cormorants, and saw the gulls clean out 
every nest before the cormorants could return. 
Photographs of nesting gulls were secured by focusing the camera on the 
nest and retiring to a distance with a cord attached to the shutter, and patiently 
awaiting the return of the bird. 
Of the cormorants the island supports three breeding species: the Farallone 
cormorant is the least common, there being only one small colony of these fowl, con- 
taining not more than seventy individuals. They are nesting in a sheltered nook 
nearly at the summit of the island and had young when we were there. We were 
able to approach them quite close as the old birds were reluctant to leave the 
young exposed to the gulls or to the fierce rays of the sun, so that we got good photos. 
The Baird cormorants nest in small scattered colonies in various places over 
the whole island, selecting 
the ledges of the cliffs for 
nesting sites. They had 
full sets of eggs at this 
date and were rather wary, 
not permitting us to get 
close enough to photograph 
them on the nest except at 
long range. This cormo- 
rant is readily distin- 
guished in the nuptial 
plumage by the conspicu- 
ous white flanks. 
Brandt cormorants were 
the most abundant of the 
three, and were starting to 
lay at this date. They 
seem to prefer the de- 
tached rocks about the is- 
land and covered them in 
thousands. There is also 
a large colony on the northwestern slope of the island. 
Red phalaropes and northern phalaropes were not uncommon in the tide 
pools along the coast line, and a few black turnstones, wandering tattlers, black 
oyster-catchers and surf birds were seen along the water’s edge. 
A single pair of ravens had their nest in a high cliff on the west end, but they 
were marked by the keepers and shot later, in expiation of their raids on the 
domestic hen houses. 
Last, but quite the contrary of least interesting of this great colony, are the 
petrels. Two species of these little fellows are known to breed there, but we saw 
only one. The Leach petrel was found on the Farallones by Mr. Leverett M. 
Loomis some years ago, but all those that we discovered during our short stay 
were ashy petrels, and they are undoubtedly the only petrel that nest there in an}’ 
numbers. The stone walls that run here and there over the island shelter in their 
crevices many a petrel and at this date they had fresh eggs. Many collectors and 
