ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
BULLETIN 
Published by the New York Zoological Society 
Volume XXV NOVEMBER, 1922 Number 6 
A PRIVATE BIRD SANCTUARY 
T HERE is a group of small islands in Lake 
Champlain known as the Four Brothers, 
which marks the most southerly breeding 
place of the herring gull (Larus argentatus). 
The existence of this outpost is due to the fact 
that Mr. Edward Hatch, Jr., of New York, 
has afforded the gulls complete protection for 
he has maintained a guard on the islands from 
the beginning to the end of each nesting season. 
The Four Brothers Islands lie about two miles 
off Willsboro Point, New York. Their total 
area is about a dozen acres. While the islands 
are well wooded, there are open spaces about 
the rocky shores where the gulls find plenty 
of room for their nests. 
The presence of gulls on Lake Champlain 
during the summer months is due entirely to 
the full protection so long afforded them on 
these islands. 
The writer accompanied Mr. Madison Grant, 
Chairman of the Zoological Society, on a visit 
to the Four Brothers on August 24. While 
crossing the lake by steamer from Burlington, 
Vermont, to Willsboro, it was charming to see 
the long breakwater at Burlington, white with 
the forms of gulls. At the Four Brothers there 
were many gulls on the beaches although the 
nesting season was over. Eggs are laid, usually 
three to a nest, during the month of May, and 
are twenty-six days in hatching. One of the 
duties of the guardian is to make a census of 
the nests. The number of young gulls reared 
at the Four Brothers each summer is between 
five hundred and one thousand, a substantial 
contribution to the bird life of our shores. 
The herring gull is the most abundant of the 
gulls wintering about Long Island, and around 
New York Bay. Gulls are useful scavengers 
and are among the species protected by law. 
Being large, conspicuous, attractive in flight, 
and, where unmolested, confiding, they have an 
esthetic value not to be overlooked. 
The method employed by Mr. Hatch in secur¬ 
ing protection for the birds each summer, is to 
advertise for a man willing to live alone on the 
islands, without w r ork, aside from protecting 
ONE OF THE FOUR BROTHERS ISLANDS 
As viewed from another of the group. 
[ 131 ] 
