LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 243 



longed, cold, easterly rainstorms which prevailed during the previ- 

 ous month, Probably the older young were able to run to shelter 

 under the ivy vines, bushes, and thick grass, and thus survived. On 

 certain portions of the island, where the grass greAV tall and thick, 

 the mortality was much less noticeable. 



The young are fed by their parents until they are fully grown 

 and well able to fly and have been taught to fish for themselves. I 

 have seen young birds fully as large as their parents and in the first 

 winter plumage fed in this way while standing on a sand bar or sit- 

 ting on the water. As the old bird approaches with a small fish hehl 

 crosswise in its bill the youngster shows its excitement by fluttering 

 its wings rapidly, screaming and throwing back its head, with open 

 mouth ready to receive the coveted morsel, while the parent hovers 

 over it and feeds it. I have never seen the feeding process performed 

 on the wing. 



Dr. Charles W. Townsend contributes the following notes on the 

 feeding of the young : 



The full-grown young appear to be always hungry and call in a monotonous, 

 beseeching way whenever an adult appears with a flsh. There are three methods 

 of receiving the fish from the parent — either in the air, on the sand, or on the 

 water. There can he no doubt that the hungry and clamorous young will take 

 food from any adult. Whether the adults feed any but their own young and 

 whether they are able to recognize their own is of course a question. I am 

 inclined to think that, although an adult may occasionally feed a clamorous 

 youngster not its own, as a rule it refuses to feed any but its own legitimate 

 offspring, which it is perfectly able to recognize. As the sexes of the adults are 

 alike in plumage it is difficult to tell whether only one or both parents feed 

 the young. 



In the air the feeding of the young is often a graceful and interesting perform- 

 ance. By a series of aerial evolutions the adult and young reach a point where 

 the transference of the fish directly from bill to bill is made so quickly that 

 one often can not be sure whether the fish was thrown or dropped or actually 

 passed from mouth to mouth. I am inclined to think all methods are used. 



On the sand the young sometimes collect in nunil)ors while the adults fish 

 for them. Although the young, easily recognized by their white foreheads and 

 black bills, generally stand motionless, they sometimes walk about, often more 

 rapidly than adults are in the habit of doing. When an adult flies toward a 

 group with food the young all clamor at once, opening their black bills and 

 displaying their crimson gapes, and crowding up toward the food-bearing adult. 

 On one occasion at Ipswich I saw an adult with a fish in its bill alight on the 

 beach near two immature birds, who both clamored loudly to be fed. Dis- 

 regarding their cries it flew to a third immature bird, but was soon off and 

 alighted near an adult, to whom it delivered the fish, which was swallowed. 

 The young either swallow the fish at once on the beach or sometimes rise in the 

 air and fly about until the fish disappears down the throat. If the fish is large 

 the .swallowing may l)e a slow process. Ont» young bird after swallowing the 

 fish alighted on the water a moment and appeared to take a drink before re- 

 joining its companions on the beach. 



The process of fe<xling the young bird on the surface of the water is per- 

 haps the most interesting, and points to the former more aquatic ancestry of 



