GULLS AND TERNS. 269 



height, they all move off, with one consent, in a direct line towards 

 the point of their destination. 



" This bird breeds in the marshes." 



As in so many other instances, these birds are by 

 no means as numerous now as when Ord wrote, more 

 than sixty years ago, yet the bird is still here, but 

 probably has altogether abandoned the great majority 

 of its breeding-grounds in New Jersey and north- 

 ward. Chamberlain says it has been driven away 

 from Nantucket. 



The Herring Gull of our coast the Middle States 

 and of our harbors and rivers is well known to all. 

 It follows up the Delaware to above Trenton, New 

 Jersey, and Dr. Warren reports it on the Susque- 

 hanna, below Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and "is a rather 

 common spring and fall migrant on Lake Erie." 



Where, as along the sea-shore, there is ever so 

 much to see, a single gull or even a flock of many 

 birds attracts little attention. They pass up and down 

 the coast, following the schools of fish or watching 

 for such flotage as comes within their extended bill 

 of fare. We glance at their glistening plumage, ad- 

 mire their graceful flight, and when they are out of 

 sight they are straightway forgotten. But it is not 

 so with the single gulls upon the river: they are 

 too prominent here to be passed by unheeded. It 

 occasionally happens that we have a storm that 

 drives the gulls inland (and such storms drive people 

 in-doors too much), and the river that was monot- 

 onous yesterday is almost tumultuous to-day. The 

 wind-tossed waves, the cloud-flecked sky, the roar of 

 gusty blasts in the leafless trees, the wild clamor of 

 23* 



