A First Glance at the Birds, 



The gulls belonging to the medium- 

 sized class are the most difficult to dif- 

 ferentiate. They are the California, the 

 mew, the short-billed and the ring-billed 

 gulls. Of these the California gull is 

 probably the most abundant species. It 

 is of about the same size as the ring- 

 billed, but is a shade darker in color. 

 The ring-billed gull may generally be 

 known by the ring of black encircling 

 its beak, and the mew and short-billed 

 may be told from the rest by their 

 smaller size and much shorter beaks. 

 There is, however, no characteristic by 

 which the short-billed may be distin- 

 guished from the mew gull as they are 

 seen in flight. 



The third group of gulls includes 

 but one species, the beautiful Bona- 

 parte's gull, a dainty, graceful little crea- 

 ture, with typical pearl-blue mantle, and, 

 unlike the other gulls of this region, 

 adorned with a hood of dark-slaty color. 



The terns, which also frequent our 

 coast, are similar to the gulls in form and 

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