583 



THE COMMOI^ GULL. ^ 



LARUS CANUS. 



Wings reaching beyond the tail ; head and neck white, spotted with dusky ; 

 lower parts, rump, and tail, white ; upper parts" clear bluish ash ; first two 

 primaries black, with a large white space near the extremity, but tipped with 

 black, the rest black towards the end, and (with the scapulars and secondaries) 

 tipped with white ; biU greenish grey, yellow towards the point ; irides 

 brown ; feet greenish ash. In summn the neck and head are pure white. 

 Young birds have the upper plumage brown ; the quills and tail are dusky, 

 and the under parts are whitish, mottled with greyish brown ; the biU is 

 nearly black with a yellowish base ; feet yellowish brown. Length seventeen 

 inches. Eggs olive-brown, spotted with dark brown and dusky. 



The Common Gull is so called not -without reason. In 

 the open sea, under the cliffs, hovering along the line of 

 breakers, sailing up the river into the very haunts of man, 

 or paddling through the watery ooze of the mud-bank ; in 

 all these places, and at all seasons, may Gulls be seen ; and 

 in most places this species is so much more abundant than 

 any other, that the bird which gives life to the seaside 

 landscape is likely to be the Common Gull. 



Gulls are, moreover, of material service, for they 

 perform for the surface of the sea the same office 

 which crustaceous animals do for its depths. Most of 

 their time is spent in either flying or swimming about 

 (they are no divers) in quest of food, which is of that 

 nature that, if suffered to accumulate, more than one of 

 our senses would be offended. All animal matter which, 

 when life is extinct, rises to the surface, it is their 

 especial province to clear away. To perform this necessary 

 work, they have need of a quick eye and a voracious 

 appetite. That they have the former in an eminent 

 degree, any one may convince himself who, when taking a 

 sea voyage, sees the vessel followed, as he often will, by a 

 flock of Gulls. Let him fling overboard, into the foaming 

 track of the ship, where his own eye can distinguish 

 nothing, ever so small a portion of bread or other kind 

 of food. That some one individual at least among the 



