108 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



weeks, or until they are able to fly, and even for some time after this 

 whenever the adult can be induced to part with some of its food. 

 Young gulls swim readily, and when frightened will sometimes take 

 to the water and swim rapidly away. 



An astonishing habit of herring gulls that has been observed and 

 described by various writers is that of infanticide, and the murder 

 is committed not only on the very young, but also on those nearly 

 grown. Ward (1906a) says: 



The main point of attack was the back of the head. To this region a number 

 of severe blows were given with the point of the bill, after which it was grasped 

 between the mandibles of the adult and the bird was pulled about until the skin 

 and flesh were cut through to the skull. 



He was unable to find that these victims were abnormal or had 

 given offense. The habit may perhaps be due to the ferocit}^ of the 

 guarding and fighting instincts in the old birds, and a lack of attune- 

 ment in the instincts of the young, in consequence of which a chick 

 will occasionally stray from its own preserve and trespass on the 

 domain of a neighbor. Meyer quotes Mr. Gray, the lighthouse 

 keeper of Great Duck Island, as saying " that some of the old birds 

 would kill young gulls and even young chickens. They Avould take 

 the young bird by the neck and choke it. He put a stop to that by 

 killing the bird found in the act." 



Examination of stomach contents of young herring gulls reported 

 by Dutcher and Bailey (1903) showed that, besides fish and squid, 

 various insects (moths, flies, and beetles) had been eaten. As a rule 

 the young are given the same food that is consumed by the adults and 

 this will be described later. In two stomachs of birds 1 and 2 

 days old examined by me I found wasps and large June beetles. 



Plumages. — The downy young are of a buffy yellow color, nearly 

 white below and dusky on the back. They are thickly marked with 

 black spots above. The bill is horn color, with a pink tip after the 

 white pipping knob has disappeared; the feet, dusky pink. The 

 growth of the young gull is rapid, and at the age of 5 or 6 

 weeks it has donned the juvenal dress, of which the prevailing color 

 is dark gray tinged with brown. The upper parts are mottled and 

 barred with grayish buff and white ; the head and neck are streaked 

 with white ; the breast and belly nearly uniform ashy- fuscous. The 

 primaries and tail are brownish black. The eyes are brown; the 

 bill dark, pale at the base; the tarsi and feet grayish flesh color. 

 There is a partial molt in the fall of the first year into the first 

 winter plumage and a partial one in the spring into the first nuptial 

 plumage ; but no essential change in the general color of the feathers. 

 In the spring and summer the large flocks of herring gulls that are 

 to be found south of the breeding range are largely made up of these 

 dark plumaged year-old birds. In the fall of the year following 



