130 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, 



Behavior. — Mr. Finley (1907) refers to their powers of flight as 



follows : 



These gulls are masters in the air. I have watched by the hour birds similar 

 to these following along in the wake of a steamer, but had never before had 

 such chances with a camera. Often they poise, resting apparently motionless 

 on outstretched wings. It is a difficult feat. A small bird can not do it. A 

 sparrow hawk can only poise by the rapid beating of his wings. The gull 

 seems to hang perfectly still ; yet there is never an instant when the wings and 

 tail are not constantly adjusted to meet the different air currents; just as in 

 shooting the rapids in a canoe the paddle must be adjusted every moment to 

 meet the different eddies, currents, and whirlpools, and it is never the same in 

 two different instants. A gull by the perfect adjustment of its body, without 

 a single flap of the wings, makes headway straight in the teeth of the wind. I 

 saw one retain a perfect equilibrium in a stiff breeze and at the same time 

 reach forward and scratch his ear. 



Mr. Dawson (1909) pays the following tribute to their prowess 

 on the wing : 



Graceful, effortless, untiring, but above all mysterious, is that power of 

 propulsion by which the bird moves forward into the teeth of the gale ; indeed, 

 is advanced all the more certainly and freely when the wind is strong. From 

 the deck of a steamer making 15 miles an hour against a 15-knot breeze, I once 

 stretched my hand toward a soaring gull. He lay suspended in mid-air without 

 the flutter of a feather, while the air rushed past him' at the rate of 30 miles 

 an hour; and he maintained the same relative position to my liand, at 5 or 6 

 feet, for about a minute. When he tired of the game, he shot forward. And 

 again, there was not in the motion the slightest perceptible effort of propulsion, 

 but only a slightly sharper inclination of the body and wings downward. We 

 see clearly how it must be, yet we can not understand it. The gull is a kite 

 and gravity the string. The bird is a continually falling body, and the wind is 

 continually preventing the catastrophe. Yes, we see it — but then, gravity 

 isn't a string, you know; and so why doesn't the wind take the kite along 

 witli it? Well, there you are; aud not even Hamilton, who discovered quater- 

 nions, could have given the mathematics of it. 



My knowledge of the vocal powers of the California gull is con- 

 fined to what I heard and noted on its breeding grounds, where its 

 vocabulary was limited. The ordinary cry was a soft, low " kow, 

 kow, kow," or " kuk, kuk, kuk," much like the notes of other gulls. 

 When the birds became much excited or alarmed they indulged in 

 shrill, sharp, piercing cries. Gulls are usually silent birds, but while 

 feeding, quarreling, or showing active emotions, they have a variety 

 of notes to express their feelings or to communicate their ideas to 

 their fellows, all of which seem to be understood. 



California gulls seems to be quiet, gentle, harmless birds, and I 

 have no evidence to show that they do any appreciable damage to 

 the various species with which they are associated on their breeding 

 grounds, though they do occasionally steal a few eggs from un- 

 protected nests. They have been found nesting in colonies with 

 ring-billed gulls, Caspian terns, white pelicans, double-crested 



