Descriptive List 



29 



primaries tipped with wliite, wliich is succeeded by a gradually diminishing black band which 

 extends farther down on the outer web of the feather than on the inner; rest of plumage pure 

 white. Ads. in minter. — Similar, but with head and neck streaked and spotted with grayish. 

 Im. — Upperparts ashy fuscous; head and nape more or less streaked with pale buffy; back 

 and wings margined or UTCgularly marked with same color; primaries brownish black; tail the 

 same, sometimes tipped or margined with buffy; underparts ashy fuscous, sometimes lightly 

 barred or streaked. L., 24.00; W., 17.50; T., 7.50; B., 2.30. (Chap., Birds of E. N. A.) 



Range. — Northern Hemisphere, breeding from Elaine northward, wintering from southern 

 Canada to the West Indies. 



Range in North Carolina. — Coastal region in winter; abundant. 



Fig. 8. Herring Gl'll. 



These large gulls are very common about the harbors and the lower reaches of 

 many of our rivers from September to April. They often come clcse to the wharves 

 of the sea-coast towns to gather fragments of food floating on the water. Passen- 

 gers of vessels find amusement in watching the gulls following in the wake, con- 

 tending for the scraps of food thrown overboard. Often they feed upon fish and 

 other animal matter cast up by the waves. In the Northern States they fly far 

 inland and eat meadow-mice as well as grasshoppers and other insects. They have 

 a peculiar way of feeding upon clams. Discovering one which has been exposed 

 by the falling tide, the bird grasps it with its feet and, rising aloft, drops it upon 

 the hard-packed sand, for the evident purpose of causing the shell to break by the 



