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THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



LAUGHING GULLS FLYING OVER THE WATERS AT THE LARUE HOLMES NATURE LEAGUE 

 BIRD REFUGE, OFF THE COAST OF CAPE MAY COUNTY, NEAR STONE HARBOR, 



NEW JERSEY. 

 Photographed by Mr. B. S. Bovvdish. 



winter visitant, the herring gull, breeds 

 on the coast of Maine and further 

 north. This species also have breed- 

 ing grounds at Lake Champlain and 

 in the Adirondack's. 



Though our proteges of the summer 

 migrate to warmer shores about the 

 fifteenth of September, the island is not 

 deserted, for it is then that the gulls 

 from the arctic climes, come to winter 

 with us, but are away again as April 

 approaches, and the migrants from 

 the south return to start nest-build- 

 ing in May. 



The island recently acquired, em- 

 braces a level area of about one hun- 

 dred and fifty acres, where sedges and 

 the company of bog-grasses hold sway, 

 affording just the conditions for suc- 

 cessful homes for these birds of the 

 sea, and yet there are sometimes 

 periods in mid-June, when tides run 

 high, when nests located close upon 

 the waters, though built up of stubble 

 and grass raised from sixteen to eigh- 

 teen inches above the ground, are swept 

 off by the tide. 



When such a calamity befalls the 



GULL ON NEST AT THE LARUE HOLMES NATURE LEAGUE BIRD REFUGE. ALSO NEST 



AND EGGS OF THE LAUGHING GULL RAISED EIGHTEEN OR TWENTY INCHES 



ABOVE THE GROUND FOR SAFETY AT PERIODS OF VERY HIGH TIDES. 



Photographed by Mr. B. S. Bowdish. 



