GULLS AND TERNS. 271 



there is a spring freshet, and these not only fly low, 

 but walk about the grassy meadows that are out of 

 water as if they were within hearing of old ocean 

 and feeding in the salt marsh. 



" Gulls are shy birds, and are caught with difficulty. They fly in 

 flocks, and carry on their fishing avocations in the sea near the shore. 

 Sometimes they cover the rocks, and when disturbed they rise with 

 frightened screams. Occasionally, they may be observed on the 

 shore, crouched with wings half extended, and apparently enjoying 

 the warmth of the sand. They walk with a most dignified carriage. 

 On water they swim with ease, but seldom dive, preferring to take 

 their prey as it appears at the surface. In the air they fly slowly yet 

 gracefully, and often sweep in circles, as if displaying their agility. 

 The web-footed birds glory in the agitations of the sea; nothing 

 gives them so much delight as a violent storm, for instinct or experi- 

 ence has taught them that a storm casts up the mollusks and other 

 of the sea inhabitants which are usually beyond their reach, and 

 brings them to the surface or leaves them on the beach. 



" How often, as we have watched the horizon darken and the 

 storm-clouds gather, have we marked the striking contrast as the 

 white gulls and sea-swallows now rose and now fell above the waves, 

 waiting in eager expectation for their coming feast!" MOQUIN- 

 TANDON. 



The Sea-swallows, or Terns, are seemingly all that 

 a bird should be : beautiful in plumage, graceful in 

 movement, gentle, and absolutely incapable of doing 

 any harm ; yet we read of their practical extermina- 

 tion in some localities because of a demand for their 

 wings to trim hats. The people that are guilty of 

 such monstrous cruelty are fiends, whether the men 

 who shoot, the men who buy, or the women that 

 wear these beautiful birds. 



Terns are somewhat more marine in their habits 

 than the gulls. They less seldom, I think, come in- 

 land and do not remain day after day, when chance 



