43 O DuTCHER AND Baily, Habits of the Herring Gull. [oct^ 



after, one of them, blindly following his nose, wandered into the 

 same tracks, but when within a few feet of the nest his course was 

 altered after a slight protest from the occupant of the nest. 



The sanitary habits of the gulls are excellent ; they are very 

 fond of bathing, resorting to the ocean where it is smooth, outside 

 the surf line. There numbers of them gather and rest on the 

 water, dipping their heads under, and throwing it over them in 

 showers. Then follows a period of dressing and preening the 

 feathers. Among the thousands of birds seen this season, not a 

 single individual was noted that showed the slightest stain on its 

 beautiful white plumage. 



The mortality among the adult gulls on the breeding grounds 

 seems to be small. In igoi only four dead ones were found ; 

 one of these had evidently been shot at from some passing vessel 

 while off shore feeding and had strength enough left to fly to its 

 home to die. The other three had died from some accidental 

 cause. Capt. Stanley states that gulls are sometimes killed by 

 flying against sharp pointed stubs, thus receiving a fatal wound, 

 and on one occasion he had found the skeleton of one that had 

 been caught by its leg in the crotch of a limb and had starved to 

 death. In 1902 he reported 25 old birds killed, most of them 

 being accidentally caught on trees. At daylight large numbers of 

 gulls leave the island and go to sea for food; and the length of 

 time they remain away is governed probably by the distance they 

 have to go to find fish. Some days they return quite early and on 

 others much later. The manner of flight when returning from one 

 of these food trips is entirely different from that of the ordinary 

 excursions made from the breeding grounds ; it is made close to 

 the surface of the water, very direct, one bird following another, 

 and is quite rapid. Sometimes the birds show marked evidences 

 of fatigue. Capt. Stanley states that the gulls are great gluttons 

 when food happens to be very plenty, for he has seen them eat so 

 much that it was impossible for them to fly but a short distance. 

 They have the power of disgorging, both pellets and partially 

 digested food : many of the former, composed of fish bones and 

 scales, were found, and on more than one occasion the observers 

 just escaped a shower of half digested fish that was disgorged by 

 an overloaded or excited gull. They are very fond of codfish 



