Bird Expert Analyzes Herring Gull Situation

Herring gulls which lay only one egg "fail to receive the proper psychological stimulation" and hence will not sit on the egg as much as a three-egg mother sits on hers, Raymond A. Paynter, associate curator of birds at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, said last night.

Speaking to five avid members of the Harvard Ornithological Club, Paynter outlined the results of his study of 25,000 to 30,000 gulls on Kent Island, in the Bay of Fundy. The mortality rate in a one-egg clutch is 75 per cent, he said, compared with only 20 per cent for a nest with three eggs.

Once hatched, the chicks have more problems; 30 per cent are pecked to death by adults of colony. Paynter discussed a composite life table for herring gulls based on 1935 gull banding and on 1947 prefledging mortality.

Unfortunately, he observed, according to his figures the gulls are laying only one-third the number of eggs that they actually are. He called for help from the HOC members to find out where the extra