Page:Condor10(1).djvu/48

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Jan,, 1908 THE NEW RESERVES ON THE WASHINGTON COAST 47 Hummers (Selasphorus mt_fus) are also included among the resident land birds; while the tree-crowned islets near shore support the ordinary fauna of the main- land. Ravens and Northwest Crows, Peale Falcons and Sparrow Hawks lay the entire region under tribute, but the Corvids, at least, nest invariably upon the mainland. The Olympiades boast twelve species of nesting sea-birds, as folIows: 1I?ematopus bachmani. Black Oystercatcher. At least one pair--usually no more--of these noisy fowls occupies every major rock among the Olympiades and every reef which lifts a head, say, twenty-five feet above the surf. The larger islets may support half a dozen pairs at once, and Destruction Island has about twelve. They usually nest upon the bare rock, and they prefer a station at the summit of the tide-washed shoulder or "water-table" of the island. Here their eggs fall an easy and frequent prey to that indefatigable connoisseur, the Raven. Larus ocddentalis. Western Gull. Colonies of this species occupy the chief rocks of the Copalis Rock Reservation, but the bird is only casual northward, where it t.s supplanted by glancescerts. In the great Glaucous-wing colonies, which oc- ALEXANDER ISLAND, QUILLAYUTE NEEDLES RESERVATION Photo by W. Leon Dawson cur on Wishaloolth and Carroll (in the Quillayute Needles Reservation) a few typi- cal Westerns may be seen, and between these and true ?laucescens every gradation appears to exist. I took no specimens, but if appearances count for anything there are ten "mulattoes" to one full-blooded darky Western, on Carroll. The Quiniault Indians have plundered the colonies on Split Rock and Wil- loughby for ages, and one of the first effects of the order will be to stop that. The gulls have become very wary, not to say discouraged, and a thousand might cover the breeding population north of Copalis Rock proper (of which I have no infor- mation).. Larus glaucescens. Glaucous-winged Gull. Gulls, like Baird Cormorants, nest in scattering fashion wherever opportunity offers. From one to forty pairs, therefore, may be found about every principal rock north of Destruction Island. They colonize extensively, however, upon Cake Rock, which is nearly inaccessible; Dohodaaluh; Wishaloolth, Carroll Islet (Habaahtaylch): White Rock (Peechwah); Old Rock (the outermost member of the Flattery Rock group); Father and Son;