Sea RINGwELED CULL. 561 
and the nature of their aerial progress quite baffles, at times, human com- 
prehension. I once studied a very tame flock of Gulls, of an allied species, 
as it followed a Puget Sound steamer; and I am able to testify that the birds 
moved about upon the air at will, and for indefinite periods of time, without 
the slightest semblance of wing-beats. At one time when we were facing a 
stiffish breeze and making headway against it at the rate of about fifteen miles 
an hour, the Gulls were resting in midair above the afterdeck. One bird 
in particular, remained for about five minutes within four feet of my out- 
stretched hand. Without a visible sign of propulsion the bird moved forward 
upon the air as by some inner compulsion, at an approximate rate of thirty 
miles per hour; and when the Gull shifted its position, it was to pass forward 
and upward rapidly without wing-beats. By what magical resolution of 
forces the birds are thus able to make the wind contradict itself one may not 
even conjecture. 
The sagacity of this bird is further shown in the fact that it has largely 
abandoned its costly habit of nesting upon the ground, the prey of every 
pirate, and has taken to building in the tops of evergreen trees. ‘To be sure 
the tree-tops along the coast of Maine, Nova Scotia, and Labrador are not 
quite inaccessible, but fishermen no longer gather gulls’ eggs by the bushel 
basketful as once they did. 
No. 263. 
y RING-BILLED GULL. 
"A. O. U. No. 54. Larus delawarensis Ord. 
Description.—dAdult in summer: Mantle deep pearl-gray (typical ‘‘Gull- 
blue”, much as in L. argentatus) ; primaries mostly black, the color decreasing in 
extent inwardly, and disappearing with the sixth quill, owing to encroachment 
of basal white (or pearl-gray) ; the first quill with subterminal white spot, the 
third to sixth tipped with white (that of the third to fifth often lacking in worn 
plumages) ; remaining plumage white; bill greenish yellow, crossed at angle by 
a broad and clearly defined black band; feet light yellow or greenish; eyelids 
vermilion; iris pale yellow. Adult in winter: Similar, but head and hind-neck 
streaked with dusky gray. Young: Above, brownish dusky or fuscous, edged 
and varied by whitish and grayish buff; outer primaries plain blackish, the shorter 
ones extensively bluish gray, and tipped with white; tail light bluish gray more 
or less mottled with blackish; crossed by a broad subterminal black band and 
tipped with white; below white, the sides spotted with brownish gray; bill blackish, 
paling basally. Length 18.00-20.00 (457.2-508.) ; wing 14.50 (368.3); tail 6.00 
(152.4) ; bill 1.60 (40.6) ; tarsus 2.20 (55.9). 
Recognition Marks.—Crow size, but appearing larger; mantle “gull-blue”: 
primaries blackish; black band across bill at angle distinctive. : 
