GULLS 



47 



The versatility of the Gull shows his degree of 

 intelligence. He is equipped for life on the water. 

 His webbed feet are for swimming, but he doesn't 

 seem to care whether nature equips him for the 

 sea or not. His taste often runs to angle-worms 

 instead of sardines. As the notion takes him, lie 

 will take up quarters about a pig-pen or a garbage 

 pile, follow the plow as a Blackbird does, picking 

 up angle-worms, or he will sail along in the wake 

 of a vessel for days at a time to satisfy his taste 

 for scraps. 



The California and Ring-billed Gulls generally 

 nest together in big colonies on the inland lakes 

 through the western part of the United States. 

 In many places, these birds are of great economic 

 importance. I have seen them sjiread out over 

 the fields and through the sagebrush and get 

 their living by catching grasshoppers. In Utah, 

 the Gull lives about the beet fields and alfalfa 

 lands and follows the irrigating ditches. \\ hen 

 the fields are irrigated and the water rushes 

 along, seeping into holes and driving mice from 

 their burrows, the Gulls flock about and gorge 

 themselves on these rodents. 



After the nesting season, large flocks of Cali- 

 fornia and Ring-billed Gulls often collect along 

 the southern coasts to spend the winter. While 

 at Santa Monica, California, during the winter 

 of 1905 and 1906, I often watched the flocks of 

 Gulls returning every evening from far inland 

 where they had been skirmishing during the day. 

 I often saw them about the gardens and in 



the fields. A few miles from the ocean is the 

 Soldiers' Home at Sawtelle. The garbage is 

 hauled two or three times a day over to the pig- 

 pens. When the dump wagon reaches the pens, 

 the driver not only always finds himself besieged 

 by a lot of hungry ]iorkers, but a flock of Gulls 



Courtesy of Nat. .Afso .\ud. Soc. 

 NEST AND EGGS OF CALIFORNIA GULL 



is always at hand to welcome his arrival. They 

 sit around on the ground or fences waiting 

 patiently. The Gulls and pigs eat together. The 

 Gull doesn't care if his coat gets soiled, for he 

 returns to the shore each evening and takes a 

 good bath before bedtime. 



William L. Finlev. 



inches. Head, 



Other Name. — White-headed Gull. 



General Description. — Length. Jo 

 white ; body, bluish-gray. 



Color. — Adults: Head all around, pure white, shad- 

 ing on neck into bluish-ash of under parts and into the 

 dark bluisli-slalc of upper parts: rump and upper tail- 

 coverts, clear ash ; primaries, black with narrow white 

 tips; tail, black narrowly tipped with white; bill, bright 

 red, black on terminal third; feet, dusky-red; iris, 

 brown ; eyelids, red. Young : Head and throat, mot- 



HEERMANN'S GULL 

 Larus heermanni Cassiii 



\. n U. Xumber 57 



tied with dusky and dull white; upper tail-coverts, 

 gray; tail, broadly white-tipped; otherwise similar to 



aduh plumage. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : Probably similar to others 

 of the genus. EuGS : Dull yellowish-drab, scatteringly 

 marked with spots of brown and lilac. 



Distribution. — Pacific coast of North America; 

 breeds in Lower California and western Mexico; 

 migrates north to southern British Columbia; winters 

 from northern California southward to Guatemala. 



As Mr. Dawson says, " Heermann's Gull is an 

 inveterate loafer and sycophant. C){ southern 

 blood (we have just learned that he is bred on 

 the islands of¥ the coast of Mexico) he comes 

 north in June only to float and loaf and dream 

 throughout the remainder of the season. Visit 

 Vol. I — s 



the ■ Bird Rocks ' of Ivosario Straits early in 

 July and you will find a colony of Glaucous- 

 wings distraught with family cares and wheeling 

 to and fro in wild concern at your presence, 

 while upon a rocky knf)h at one side, a white- 

 washed club room, sit half a thousand Heer- 



