The Herring Gull at Isle Royale, 
Lake Superior. 
Of flic water birds so common along the At¬ 
lantic coast, the only one seen on our great 
inland sea, Lake Superior, in any quantity, is 
the American Herring Gull. In June, I paid a 
visit to Isle Royale, whose rocky coast and 
outlying islands of rock form a natural haunt 
for gulls and loons, the former occupying a 
large island off the northeast extremity, and 
another colony nesting on a large rock north 
of the main island, while along the shore an 
occasional pair occupy small rocks jutting six 
or eight feet above the water. 
The fishermen who arrive on the island early 
in the season usually gather three or four hun¬ 
dred fresh eggs for their own use and aside 
from this the nests are rarely molested. The 
usual complement of eggs is three, and to avoid 
partially incubated eggs they generally take 
from nests containing but one or two, such 
nests almost invariably producing fresh eggs, 
and the fishermen all concur in the belief that 
if the first set of three eggs is taken the pair 
lay another three and if these are taken, three 
more are laid, nine in all, when the pair be¬ 
come discouraged and lay no mono eggs that 
season. 
At the time of our visit the nests contained 
two or three young birds covered with a gray¬ 
ish down, white beneath, mottled light and 
dark on the back, and the head marked with 
irregular blotches of black, and occasionally 
an egg was found but always sterile. No at¬ 
tempt is made at nest building, the lichens, 
moss and grasses growing in any slight depres¬ 
sion form the original basis and the accumulat¬ 
ing excrement soon mats this into something 
of a nest. The loud cries of the female gull 
generally gave notice of a nest when located 
away from the main colony and the young 
birds constantly bobbed up their heads to look 
at us as we approached and as our heads ap¬ 
peared above one side of the rock, they would 
disgorge a large mass of half digested fish and 
slip off the rock on the other side and swim 
away, the old gulls keeping well out of range, 
but soon attracting a large number of others 
by their incessant cries. 
While at Rock Harbor one of the party 
brought into camp three quarter grown gulls 
from a nest a short distance away, but no one 
had the heart to sacrifice them for scientific 
purposes and they were placed on a rock near 
the nest. The parent birds, however, did not 
put in an appearance, and later in the day the 
three orphans were discovered and surrounded 
by a lot of crows. One stately fellow, after 
some preliminary skirmishing succeeded in 
killing one of them and flew to the woods on 
the main island carrying the victim in its bill, 
another soon followed while the third, after 
being roughly handled, slid off the rock into 
the water and swam away, the crows paying 
no further attention to him. Two or three 
old gulls circling around complacently wit¬ 
nessed the slaughter of the innocents without 
a protest. Inasmuch as other young on rocks 
near by wore not attacked I concluded the 
crows recognize an orphan when they meet 
one. 
Away from the nests it was difficult to get a 
shot at the old birds, although at a fishing 
station in Tobin’s Bay we finally secured all we 
wished, and proved that gulls have no idea of 
nuinber. After dressing the fish the offal was 
taken in a barrel and dumped in the water 
close to an island in the bay which soon at¬ 
tracted hundreds of gulls who settled on the 
water and fought over the choice morsels. On 
the approach of a boat they would keep out of 
range, but by landing one of the party on the 
island and returning with the boat the gulls 
would settle as before and several secured at 
one shot, the boat would pick these up, coming 
close to the island, and after returning another 
shot would soon be had and the strategy con¬ 
tinued so long as any offal remained. The 
birds congregate in hundreds about the few 
fishing stations on the islands, and their in¬ 
cessant cry becomes tiresome when listened to 
from daylight until after dark. 
o MO. XIV, S ept. 1889 pM 
