The California Mur re 
into a vertical position, the feet are extended to the utmost to act as 
brakes, and the head is thrust forward as much as possible to guide these 
operations, which are imperfectly correlated at best. Occasionally, a 
bird fails to effect a landing with ease, or at least fears failure, whereupon 
it turns instantly and glides downward upon extended wing, preparatory 
to a new trial. 
As we finally withdraw and the timorous ones come back, there is a 
ferment of readjustment on the ledge. Lost chicks pipe shrill inquiry of 
every bustling matron, and if mistaken, are received with spiteful jabs 
from bills as sharp as thorns. When, after much adversity, the right 
mother is found, the chick is promptly thrust between her legs, where the 
accommodations seem'ridiculously inadequate. Fortunately, the chicks 
are not required to remain for long in this bedlam nursery. At an earl)' 
age they are conducted —carried according to some authorities—to the 
water. Flere they take up in high spirits the herculean task of conquering 
the mighty deep, and we know little more of their life history until they 
are ready to haul out again in the following, or perhaps in the next suc¬ 
ceeding, spring. 
The California Murre’s notes consist chiefly of a mumbled and apolo¬ 
getic ow ow, or a louder arry of protest; but occasionally the birds explode 
in stentorous kerawks, absurdly out of character with their mild eyes. 
The name arra, which is applied to a closely related species in the North 
Pacific, is manifestly imitative. 
Scattered colonies of Murres exist all along the coast-line as far south 
as Prince Island (off San Miguel), but their aggregate population is 
trifling in comparison with the northern colony, which for unknown genera¬ 
tions has maintained itself upon the Farallons. 
In the palmy days antecedent to the arrival of the gold seekers, these 
Farallon rookeries, or, more properly, loomeries, rivaled those of Alaska 
in importance. But the Argonauts brought keen appetites. Food was 
scarce in the early days, before agriculture had been developed. The 
presence of so much easy meat at the mouth of the Golden Gate was not 
likely to be overlooked. By 1850, the robbing of the Murre ledges had 
become systematic, and the Farallon Egg Company, the famous “egg 
trust,” was formed for the purpose of supplying the San Francisco market. 
That the venture was a financial success there can be no doubt. Dr. 
Fleermann, writing of the situation in the early Fifties, says, “The traffic 
in the eggs from this place to San Francisco and inland reaches the value 
annually of between one and two hundred thousand dollars”. 1 According 
to another authority “more than five hundred thousand eggs were sold 
in less than two months in 1854—all collected in one limited portion of 
1 Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., Vol. X., pt. IV., No. 2, pp. 75, 76. 
750/ 
