The Birds of Molly Island, Yellowstone National Park

T THE southern end of Yellowstone Lake, twenty miles from the nearest tourist route and consequently secluded enough to tempt birds who prefer such a home, are two little islands rising only a few feet above the water.The islets are an eighth of a mile apart, each about four hundred feet long by two hundred feet wide, their summits eight to ten feet high.No soil is: present, and the expanse of sand and gravel is broken only by a few larger stones and some rather bedraggled and discouraged bushes.From the fierce winds that sweep across the more open parts of the lake, these islets, the northernmost of which is known as "Molly Island", are nicely protected in a bay of the Southeast Arm, by the shore, a mile away.California Gulls nest on Klamath Lake, Oregon, in considerable numbers, but are not reported as now breeding commonly east of there, save far to the northward, on Great Slave Lake.Hence I was greatly surprised at the gulls of Molly Island.Such reports as I could find noted the Ring-billed Gull (Larzls deZaware&s) as present and nesting in the Yellowstone ; yet the California Gull