THE RING-BILLED GULL. 
N 
a 
NI 
Going north along the beach road from Blaine, as the tide neared the 
flood, I caught sight of a newly-arrived company of these Gulls upon an outer 
reef. Noting a bar midway between them and the beach, to which they would 
be likely to retire 1f not alarmed, I stole up to a sheltered spot commanding a 
view of the latter location. Here at close range [ had the satisfaction of 
seeing the birds alight gracefully one by one until a company of twenty-six 
awaited the last advances of the tide. One member of the flock had his sus- 
picions of the dark object ashore, and published them from time to time in a 
high-pitched note of protest. In uttering this the bird first thrust his head 
forward with mandibles far apart, and began squealing. This noise he con- 
ume while throwing his 
further, like a dog bay- 
siding, he came to 
tinued with increasing vol- 
head straight up, and then 
ing the moon. In sub- 
“position” again, and 
lower and finer note, 
either slightly ajar 
ended by droning a 
with mandibles 
or closed outright. 
ys 
peg a APPLE PEAS 
Fs» aes 
From a Photograph, Copyright, 1907, by W. L. Dawson. 
THE MESSENGERS OF PEACE. 
GULLS ON MADE LANDS, SEATTLE. 
Without further retreat the flock awaited quietly the oncoming of the 
tide, and allowed it to lift them, like stranded boats, clear of their anchorage, 
after which they swam slowly out to sea. 
We encountered these birds in small numbers about Moses Lake in May, 
1906, and surmised that they were breeding in some out-of-the-way swamp 
among the sand-hills. They were in high plumage, and their notes at this 
season had a mellowness and depth entirely strange. 
It is no small satisfaction to note that the barbarous custom of adorning 
ladies’ hats with the purloined plumage of these graceful gulls has about 
disappeared. To be sure, they did look very jaunty, but the hasty effigy of 
