124 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



X> 



CLEAR PHOTOGRAPH OF A GULL. 



Here is a remarkably good photo- 

 graph of a herring trull. Every detail 

 is clear. ( )f the bird the Audubon 

 Society (to whom we are indebted for 

 the cut) has this eulogy and description : 



"If there is any one kind that deserves 

 the title of our national water bird it is 

 this harbor gull, for it is found in the 

 Northern Hemisphere wherever there is a 

 sufficient body of water to yield it food. 

 For the three or four months of the year 

 that are its breeding season, it may be seen 



only northward of Maine, the Great Lakes, 

 Minnesota and British Columbia, and in 

 the northern parts of the Old World; but 

 for the rest of the year the harbor gulls 

 travel southward as far as Cuba on the 

 east, and lower California on the west; and, 

 in Europe, southward to the Mediterranean; 

 in great flocks or only small groups stopping 

 to winter as regularly in certain haunts as 

 the migrant song-birds return in spring to 

 their old nesting-places. 



"They are very sociable birds at all times 

 of the year, keeping in colonies even in the 



HERRING OR HARBOR GULL. 

 From a photograph made by William Dutcher in the protected colony on Duck Island, Maine. 



