The Western Gulls 
rapacious beak is to burrow under ground or to file into crevices. And 
at that Anthony tells us: 1 “I have seen a Western Gull pull a Cassin’s 
Auklet from a somewhat more shallow burrow than the usual and swallow 
it whole with the same gusto and apparent relish with which it bolted 
the egg a moment later.” A bird which can swallow an adult Cassin 
Auklet, a bird with a body fully as large as that of a robin, can make away 
with young murres and baby shags at an alarming rate. As a conse¬ 
quence, the murre ledges are repeatedly attacked and sometimes pillaged, 
in spite of the fact that the attendant parents huddle together in actual 
contact. The case with the cormorant is even more desperate, especially 
when the visit of a fisherman or a birdman puts the shags to flight. As 
Anthony says again‘‘The advent of man in the region of a cormorant 
rookery is hailed with delight by every gull on the island; but to the poor 
cormorant it is a calamity of the deepest hue. As the frightened birds 
leave the nests, which have so far never been for a moment left without 
the protection of at least one of the parents, the screaming gulls descend 
in swarms to break and eat the eggs or kill the young as the case may be. 
Small cormorants are bolted entire despite their somewhat half-hearted 
GULLS AT REDONDO 
CHIEFLY IMMATURE WESTERN’S 
