The California Mur re 
days, before oviposition. The egg, so immense for the size of the bird, 
is matured ashore. Indeed, the weight of the burden often renders the 
bird quite helpless and unable to fly. My heart ached for some of the 
mothers who, assaying flight, went bumping and floundering over the 
rocks instead; and I greatly fear that once dislodged the gravid female is 
never able to return with that burden. One caught by hand on level 
ground, where escape by flight was impossible, we dissected. The egg 
was placed in the oviduct little end down and must have been quite ready 
for extrusion. The pigment, although “wet,” soon dried, and the egg 
cannot be told today from one taken from the ledge. But our chief 
curiosity was as to the development of the other ova. There was no sign 
whatever of activity, and the second in succession could not have been 
picked out from among 
her tiny sisters. Yet it 
is perfectly certain that 
such a succession had 
been designated, and 
that in the event of dis¬ 
aster to the first, another 
candidate would have 
been put upon the ways 
and rushed to comple¬ 
tion within three or four 
weeks. 
But lest we should 
overemphasize the de¬ 
structiveness of the Gull, 
I will quote a page from 
field notes made on the 
spot: “California Murre, 
Farallon Ids., June i, 
1911. After all, the 
gulls do seem to have 
a certain respect for a 
Murre beak, especially 
when wielded in a right¬ 
eous cause. The Murre 
colony, which occupies 
a certain outlier on the 
north side of the west 
end, is of the timid sort 
and as often as a human an oil-soaked murre 
Taken near Santa Barbara 
Photo ly the Author 
SjOj 
