WATER BIRDS 



immature are of a uniform creamy white 

 above and below. 



Bonaparte's gull, one of the smallest gulls, 

 is a common migrant, and kittiwakes and ring- 

 billed gulls, although less common, are far 

 from rare. 



The common tern, often called mackerel 

 gull, is easily identified by its swallow-like 

 flight, its bill pointing downwards as it flies, 

 and by its habit of hovering and plunging for 

 fish, as well as by its loud cries of te-arr. Its 

 bill is red with a black tip, its cap is black, 

 its back of a lovely pearl gray, its lower parts 

 white, and its tail long and forked. Not so 

 many years ago various fragments and the 

 whole skins of these beautiful birds were fas- 

 tened on women's hats, just as scalps and 

 feathers are fastened in the head-dresses of 

 savages. Thousands of the birds were shot 

 down where they could .be most easily ob- 

 tained, namely, on their breeding grounds, for 

 they are plucky little birds and valiantly at- 

 tack any marauder who intrudes on their 

 homes, and they do not seek to escape. These, 

 as well as other species of terns, were greatly 

 reduced in numbers by this cold-hearted com- 

 bination of fashion and slaughterers, when, 



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