486 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
I observed adult gulls alighting near close flocks of young birds 
on a number of occasions, at Gravel Island. Each time the juvenals 
surrounded the adult like a pack of wolves, and it was often com- 
pletely hidden from my view by the struggling young gulls. In 
plate 7 such a scene appears. Such a performance was usually ac- 
companied by considerable noise made by the hungry birds. Other 
adult birds sometimes added to the clamor by screaming. The gen- 
eral excitement is shown in the illustration just mentioned. 
The period during which the young are fed is evidently a long one. © 
I saw young birds which must have been at least 6 weeks old, and 
probably considerably older than this, still being fed by adult birds. 
It is of course possible that young birds may be obtaining some of 
their food themselves before all food giving by their parents or by 
other adults ceases. 
On a few occasions, I saw adults apparently resenting the approach 
of other adults to their young, but data of this sort are very meager. 
These observations and those quoted in this paper from Herrick and 
Hornaday, however, make it probable that the young are guarded for 
at least a considerable time after hatching by their parents. 
I have been unable to obtain data concerning the relationships of 
the parents to the young when the latter are learning to take care 
of and feed themselves. Adults and young roam about together in 
flocks for weeks or months after the young are able to fly. 
V. GENERAL BEHAVIOR OF THE JUVENAL GULLS. 
The behavior of the young just after hatching has been described 
by Ward.’ 
According to Dutcher and Baily,? ‘‘The instinct to hide seems to 
be present within an hour or two after hatching, or so soon as 
the young bird is strong enough to walk.”’ My own experience is 
that the instinct to hide is not always developed thus early. On 
July 6, 1907, at Gull Island near Marquette, Mich., in Lake Superior, 
I found a nest containing one single nestling which stood up pertly 
in its nest and did not give the usual mdications of fear (pl. 6, fig. 1). 
The plumage of this bird was dry, and it was able to stand. On the 
same day, another nest was observed with two young and an egg in 
which the occupant was breaking its way out (pl. 6, fig. 2). In 
this case the two nestlings showed very great fear and left their nest 
which was located on a small ledge of rock, squealing pitifully. They 
showed other signs of distress and began to pant. Mrs. Strong held 
an umbrella over the birds to protect them from the intense sunlight 
that prevailed. Nevertheless, before I had gone through the process 
of mounting a camera on a tripod and making one exposure, one of 
1 Op. cit., p. 120. 4 Op. cit., p. 422. 
