THE CALIFORNIA GULL 19 



the nick of time. They were in the furrow behind, on the 

 plowed ground ahead, and on all sides, hunting and peck- 

 ing about constantly, and every one chirping or squealing 

 until the field was noisier than a barnyard at feeding time. 



These birds seem a little larger than the ordinary do- 

 mestic duck, but not so large as the largest Peking ducks I 

 have seen. Their bodies are much more graceful than the 

 body of a duck and they have much longer wings and 

 shorter necks; altho the bill is rather broad at the base, it 

 is not flat like a duck's bill but comes almost to a point and 

 has a decided hook at the end much like the beak of a 

 hawk. They were bluish gray over the back and white on 

 the breast, the belly, and the quills of the tails. I had 

 seen gulls before far out on Lake Michigan, tho they were 

 not like these ; and I had read enough to know at once that 

 they were sea gulls of some kind. I was surprized to find 

 so many sea gulls a thousand miles from the ocean, but 

 learned that they visit this part of the country regularly 

 every spring by the tens of thousands on their way to their 

 nesting grounds farther north. Sometimes a few stay in 

 Utah and nest there. 



They are considered a great blessing in Utah, because 

 they stay until after most of the grasshoppers are hatched 

 and destroy them by the tens of thousands. The old set- 

 tlers will tell you how in the early days the grasshoppers, 

 really the black crickets, were destroying all the crops, 

 when one April day in 1850, just as these insects were 

 hatching by millions, the gulls came in flocks, and de- 

 voured them and saved the country. They will tell you 

 that they eat grasshoppers until they are gorged and then 

 fly to the lake or some stream and drink themselves full of 

 water when they disgorge the grasshoppers they have 



