LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. Ill 



all sides to the feast. The small fry are eaten whole, while the 

 larger bony fishes are gradually hacked to pieces until nothing but 

 the skeleton is left. The tough spiny skin of the dogfishes and 

 skates protect them until decay has allowed an entrance, and these 

 are then partly consumed. Squid are also thrown up on the beaches 

 and are relished by the gulls. 



The herring gull has a curious habit of dragging dry fish from the 

 upper beach to the water. I found on Ipswich Beach a fish, 18 

 inches long, that had been dragged by a gull 134 yards in an irreg- 

 ular course from the upper beach to the edge of the water. During 

 the whole transit the gull walked backward, as was plainly shown 

 by the tracks. In this connection the following by Strong (1914) 

 concerning his captive gulls is of interest : He found that these gulls 

 often rinsed a piece of food that " has been lying in a chemical solu- 

 tion, or when it has accumulated considerable dirt as a consequence 

 of having been dragged on the ground. Such rinsing of the food 

 does not occur at every feeding, but is usual." In the case of the 

 gulls at IpsAvich it would seem as if they wished to soften the food 

 by maceration in the water. 



From the beach and among the rocks of the seashore the herring 

 gull obtains a variety of food other than dead refuse — crabs and 

 other crustaceans, mollusks of all sorts, such as clams, mussels, sea 

 snails, etc., and echinoderms and worms. Many crabs and mollusks 

 are broken with the bill, but if this can not be accomplished the 

 gull seizes the difficult morsel and flies up with it into the air, nearly 

 vertically or in circles, drops it onto the hard sand or rocks, follows 

 closely the descent, and alights to regale itself on the exposed con- 

 tents. If unsuccessful the first time the gull tries a second and some- 

 times a third or fourth time. This habit, which is also a common 

 one with crows, explains the fact that moUusk shells, crabs, and sea 

 urchins are scattered so universally along our coast, sometimes half 

 a mile from the sea. On the rock}' coast of Maine, where the sea 

 urchin {Strongylocentrotus drohachiensis) is abundant, the gulls 

 sometimes turn them over and pick out the flesh from the circular 

 hole about the mouth without breaking the shell. Isely (1912) 

 speaks of seeing a herring gull in Kansas " following a corn lister, 

 picking up grubs like the blackbirds." In England, where the birds 

 are more familiar with man, herring gulls not infrequently follow 

 the plow to pick up Avorms and grubs. 



From time to time complaint is made of the damage done by her- 

 ring gulls in eating fish or fish refuse spread on land as a fertilizer, 

 and one can liardl}'^ blame the gull for his failure to discriminate 

 between harmful and useful refuse. It is probable that these reports 

 are exaggerated, and it has been found that the birds are easily kept 

 away by scarecrows. 



