1 6 NATURE STUDY. 



the end, and the black markings on the wings are differ- 

 ent from adults, during the first winter. This serves to 

 distinguish them.' But at the first prenuptial moult they 

 gain full adult plumage and can no longer be told from their 

 parents. In the case of the large gulls, however, the young 

 take two or three years in attaining mature dress The 

 first year the young herring gulls are a dusky brown . These 

 dark birds may often be seen- in the flocks, and it is hard to 

 realize that these birds can ever be as beautiful and snowy 

 as the others. At each moult they lose part of the brown 

 for white and gray, and, by the third year, their plumage 

 might be called adult, though slight differences may be 

 found in the primary markings for a nmnber of years. 



For many years the flocks of gulls and terns have been 

 sadly depleted by natives and fishermen, and by hunters, 

 as well, who have slaughtered thousands for the millinery 

 market. There was a fair excuse for the former class, for 

 the fresh eggs made a very welcome addition to a some- 

 what restricted diet, and even the young birds did not come 

 amiss. There was even a good excuse for the plume hun- 

 ters, who no less gained their subsistence at the expense 

 of the birds, though in an indirect way. The former class 

 had greatly reduced the birds in numbers, but the hunters 

 would nearly have extirpated them in our locality had the 

 traffic kept up a few years longer, Often hundreds were 

 shot in a single daj^, by one party, and at the most destruc- 

 ive time, too, for the congregation of birds in huge colonies 

 at the breeding season, made them easy prey in paying 

 quantities. It was at this season that they were most ex- 

 tensively collected. The heads of families being thus de- 

 stroyed, thousands of eggs were never hatched, and num- 

 erous young birds were left to starve. Many gulls were 

 trapped in snares, and caught on baited fish hooks fastened 

 in a row on long trawl lines. These methods were better 

 than shooting for the plumage was not soiled with the blood. 



