The California Mur re 
Our own mission, that of providing material for a habitat group in 
the California Academy of Sciences, although carefully safeguarded, was 
necessarily somewhat destructive. On the 20th of May, very early in 
the season, I ventured to disturb only one small colony of Murres, de¬ 
termined to ascertain the state of breeding. The birds, some 200 of them, 
moved off, hastily enough, and disclosed only 18 eggs. I had scarcely 
withdrawn when the gulls poured down upon the rocks and cleaned up 
the eggs in a trice. They seized them in their bills without difficulty, but 
let them fall again upon the rocks by way of getting at the contents. Some 
eggs were strong enough to resist this treatment, and such the gulls 
seized again and again and dropped from an increasing height, until the 
object was accomplished. Several gulls would lick up the contents of a 
single smashed egg; and although there was some squabbling, there was 
no attempt to escape with booty to some undisturbed spot, as would have 
been the case with a chunk of bread or meat. 
The Murres are evidently very much attached to a given situation, 
once chosen. In no instance did I notice a diminution in numbers on the 
ledges most disturbed, but rather an increase. For instance, a certain 
flat-topped spur on the extreme west had been sacked just previous to our 
arrival. We visited it three times, uncovering, to our regret, over eighty 
eggs on the occasion of our last visit—yet this rock was swarming the day 
after, and the number of birds had doubled by the time we left. There 
was no doubt, either, that the birds on the disturbed ledges were increas¬ 
ingly apprehensive and wild. In going after the Brandt Cormorants under 
the umbrella tent we created such uneasiness in a certain populous colony 
(of say 200 pairs) which we had to pass, that we determined to sacrifice 
it and so rushed it. Ninety-seven eggs were exposed, all fresh or nearly 
so, and these we took. Twice thereafter we had occasion to pass the same 
way, and found it necessary to advance on the double quick to beat the 
gulls to the uncovered eggs. In fact the last time the gulls did get in 
first. Yet there were twice as many birds on the ledges the last time, and 
I am persuaded that our depredation made no more than a momentary 
difference. Moreover, and this point will bear emphasis—confidence 
undoubtedly increases with the advance of incubation. The Murre just 
emerging from a winter spent in the open ocean is a very skittish fowl. 
She is thinking of laying an egg; but Oh, Mercy, no, not now! When she 
is gravid with approaching maternity, she hates to move, but she will at 
whatever risk to self and posterity. Three weeks of brooding, however, 
will make her defiant of danger. In other colonies and upon more than 
one occasion I have stroked the sitting females with the hand. 
To my great regret actual statistics are not available, but there is no 
doubt that the birds “haul out" on the ledges several days, perhaps ten 
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