186 



THE OOLOGIST 



City Schools, is leader of this club. 

 The start was made at about 5 a. m. 

 with nearly forty in the party. The 

 trip covered about three miles, start- 

 ing at the Washington school building 

 and going to the North Platte River 

 and a short distance the other side 

 and back. The weather was clear and 

 cool with a light breeze from the 

 northwest. (The editor can vouch 

 for the list except the Sparrowhawk.) 



1. Maryland Yellowthroat (probab- 

 ly occidentalis). 



2. Yellow-headed Blackbird. 



3. Yellow-billed Cuckoo. 



4. White-throated Sparrow. 



5. Western Meadowlark. 



6. Western Warbling Vireo. 



7. Solitary Sandpiper. 



8. Red-shafted Flicker. 



9. Downy Woodpecker. 



10. Arkansas Kingbird. 



11. Eared Grebe (Specimen found). 



12. Northern Flicker. 



13. Bronzed Grackle. 



14. Least Sandpiper. 



15. Baltimore Oriole. 



16. Mourning Dove. 



17. Brown Thrasher. 



18. Chipping Sparrow. 



19. Red-winged Blackbird. 



20. Orchard Oriole. 



21. Robin. 



22. Magpie. 



23. Killdeer. 



24. Kingbird. 



25. Barn Swallow. 



26. Belted Kingfisher. 



27. Catbird. 



28. Bluebird. 



29. Blue Jay. 



30. Yellow Warbler. 



31. Horned Lark. 



32. Towhee. 



33. Mallard. 



34. Goldfinch. 



35. Sparrowhawk. 



36. Cowbird. 



Issued June 12, 1915. 



The Original White Wings. 



The term "gull" usually is associat- 

 ed in the popular mind only with the 

 long-winged swimmers seen along the 

 salt water shores and in coast har- 

 bors. There are represented in the 

 United States, however, twenty-two 

 species or sub-species. Of these some 

 are true inland birds, frequenting 

 prairies, marshes, and inland lakes. 

 Flocks of gulls on the waters of our 

 harbors or following the wake of ves- 

 sels are a familiar sight but not every 

 observer of the graceful motions of 

 the bird is aware of the fact that gulls 

 are the original "white wings." 



As sea scavengers they welcome as 

 food dead fish, garbage, and offal of 

 various sorts, and their services in 

 cleaning up such material are not to 

 be regarded lightly. It will, however, 

 surprise many to learn that some of 

 the gull family render important in- 

 land service, especially to agriculture. 

 At least one species, the California 

 gull, is extremely fond of field mice, 

 and during an outbreak of that pest 

 Nevada in 1907-8 hundreds of gulls as- 

 sembled in and near the devastated 

 alfalfa fields and fed entirely on mice, 

 thus lending the farmers material aid 

 in their warfare against the pestifer- 

 ous little rodents. The skua also feeds 

 on mice and lemmings. Several spe- 

 cies of gulls render valuable service 

 to agriculture by destroying insects 

 also, and in spring hundreds of Frank- 

 lin's gulls in Wisconsin and the Da- 

 kotas follow the plowman to pick up 

 the insect larvae uncovered by the 

 share. 



That at least one community has 

 not been unmindful of the substan- 

 tial debt it owes the gull is attested 

 in Salt Lake City, where stands a 

 monument surmounted by a bronze 

 figure of two gulls, erected by the 

 people of that city "in grateful re- 

 membrance" of the signal service 



