THE GULLS AND TERNS 



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"AN OFF HOUR FOR HOUSEKEEPERS' 

 Laughing gulls, Breton Island Reservation, Louisian 



usually select a rocky island for a nesting site and pull 

 together small piles of drift weed for nests. They 

 usually lay three eggs which vary from drab to olive 

 or bluish white in ground color, irregularly spotted with 

 lilac and shades of brown. The young birds are covered 

 with down when hatched, and, like the adults, are able 

 to swim. They are cared for by their parents, however, 

 until they learn to fly. Their downy coat is mottled 

 with buff and gray so that when they crouch they are 

 almost invisible against the lichen covered rocks. 



A somewhat smaller and more migratory species is the 

 ring-billed gull which scarcely 

 can be distinguished from the 

 herring gull at any distance. It 

 migrates as far south as Mexico 

 and Central America and rarely 

 winters as far north as New 

 York State. The chief differ- 

 ence between it and the herring 

 gull is that in the adult plumage, 

 it has yellow legs instead of pink 

 and has a black band across its 

 bill. The immature birds can 

 be distinguished at greater dis- 

 tances because the ring-billed 

 gull has a pure white tail marked 

 by a subterminal black band 

 while the immature herring gull 

 has half or all of the tail dark. 



A somewhat smaller and more 

 maritime species is the kittiwake, 

 so called from its note. It has 

 nearly the same pattern of colo- 

 ration as the herring and ring- 

 billed gulls with more or less 

 black on the flight quills. Three 

 larger species, the glaucous gull, 



the Iceland gull, and the Kumlien 

 gull are distinguished by the 

 absence of black on the pri- 

 maries. These are northern 

 species found rarely on our 

 coast in winter and they can be 

 distinguished from one another 

 only by experienced observers. 

 A more distinctly marked large 

 gull, in fact the largest of them 

 all, is the great black-backed 

 gull which differs from all the 

 others in having the mantle a 

 deep slaty black. It is a martime 

 species and seldom visits inland 

 waters. 



The smallest of the North 

 American gulls is the Bonaparte's 

 gull which in its breeding dress 

 has the entire head slaty black. 

 It takes at least two years to 

 acquire this plumage, however, 

 and it is worn only during the summer so that white 

 headed birds are much more often seen. It is more 

 migratory than the other species, nesting in the far north 

 and seldom wintering north of the Southern States, many 

 individuals continuing their winter rovings to Mexico 

 and Yucatan. 



A more southern black-headed gull is the laughing 

 gull which nests in the salt marshes along the coast 

 from Massachusetts south to Venezuela, retiring in winter 

 to the Gulf coast and even to Brazil. This denizen 

 of the South is somewhat smaller than the ringed-billed 



Photograph by Herbert K. Job 



THE GREATEST OF ALL TRAVELERS 

 Arctic tern on nest. This bird is said to migrate 22,000 miles a year. 



Matinicus Rock, Maine. 



