76 
U. S. P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS-ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
annually of between one and two hundred thousand dollars. If undisturbed, it lays but a single 
egg and rears but one bird each season. No nest is prepared, but depositing her egg on the 
bare rock, ground or any slight ledge, the female, denuding a portion of her breast by plucking 
out the feathers, sits upright upon it during the period of incubation. Gentle and inoffensive, 
it is not only harassed by man but also by the gull, its most vigilant and often its worst enemy. 
I have frequently seen the gulls assemble in large numbers and by raising a great clamor and 
spreading their wings, endeavor to frighten them away from their trust that they might begin 
to plunder. I one day saw three gulls approach scientifically a single murre setting on her egg. 
Two of them feigning an attack in front, the murre raised herself to repel them with her sharp 
pointed bill, instantly the third advancing from the rear seized her solitary egg from beneath 
her and flew off with the booty, the two first immediately following to claim their share. The 
egg was dropped and broken on the rocks when a general scramble ensued between the three 
robbers for the valued prize. The egg hunters continue to rob them from May to July, when 
exhausted nature compels the bird to cease laying. During this period when driven from the 
rookeries, flying in terror to escape the threatening danger, they dash themselves to pieces 
against the rocky walls or collecting against them ten or twelve deep, numbers are crushed by 
the violence of each others’ stragglings. At the time of the drive, (as it is called,) these birds 
all leave the island and settling on the water cover it for a mile around. 
URIA COLUMBA, Pallas .—Black Guillemot. 
Uria colamba, Cassin, in Baird’s Gen. Rep. IX, 912. 
Abundant and resident on the seacoast, breeding in the crevices of the rocks on the 
Farrallones. 
COLYMBUS GLACIALIS, Linn .—Great Northern Diver or Loon. 
Colymbus glacialis, Gmel. Syst. Nat. vol. I, part II, p. 588.— Nutt. Orn. vol. II, p. 513.— Wils. Am. Orn. vol. IX, 
p. 84, pi. 74, fig. 3. 
Abundant on the fresh water lakes, where its lugubrious cry is occasionally heard towards 
evening. 
COLYMBUS SEPTENTRIONALIS, Linn .-Red-throated Loon. 
Colymbus septenlrionalis, Gmel. Syst. Nat. vol. I, part II, p. 586 .—Nutt. Orn. vol. II, p. 519. — Aud. B. of A. Oct. 
vol. VII, p. 299, pi. 478. 
The specimen obtained was shot from the wharf at Newtown, San Diego. 
PODICEPS CRISTATUS, L i n n .--Crested Grebe. 
Podiceps crislatus, Aud. B. of A. Oct. vol. VII, p. 308, pi. 474.— Rich. & Sw. F. Bor. Am. vol. II, p. 410. — .Nutt. 
Orn. vol. II, p. 250. 
Abundant. Frequenting the fresh water districts, and observed also at Santa Barbara on the 
borders of the ocean. 
PODICEPS CALIFORNICUS, Heermann .—California Grebe. 
Podiceps californicus, Heermann, Proceed. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phil. vol. VII, p. 
Form .—Size small. Bill slightly slender, curved upwards ; wings short; first quill of 
primaries slightly longest; secondaries short; tertiaries longer, nearly equal to the primaries ; 
tarsse flattened ; feet large. 
