GULLS AND TERNS: Family Laridae [2-85] 



to a dozen Western Gulls may be observed carrying on this type of aerial 

 bombardment, which is one of the most amusing spectacles on the Oregon 

 coast. Many of the clams miss the slip entirely and land in the mud below. 

 The birds seldom try to reclaim these wild shots. Some of the gulls 

 become quite skillful in gauging their speed and height and hit the 

 narrow roadway with a high degree of regularity and accuracy. We 

 have observed this species at various times dropping clams on rocky or 

 stony beaches also, particularly Netarts Bay in Tillamook County. 



About summer resorts and salmon canneries, where they become ac- 

 customed to feeding from garbage dumps and cannery refuse, the Western 

 Gulls become exceedingly tame during the summer as they forage about. 

 They may then be observed at very close range and their plumage studied 

 in detail. During salmon-canning season, every cannery is decorated with 

 a line of gulls along the roof ridge and usually every available piling, 

 as well as every perch, is taken by these white-robed scavengers. When 

 material is dumped, it immediately becomes the center of a screaming, 

 fighting horde of gulls, each struggling to obtain more than its share of 

 the food, completely destroying any opinion of daintiness or refinement 

 that might have been derived from its angelic livery. 



Few actual stomach examinations of Western Gulls taken in Oregon 

 have been made. One taken on December 6, 1913, was full of remains of 

 clam shells and fish bones, another taken on December 1.7 of the same 

 year was full of unidentified fish roe, and a third, taken on December 2.8, 

 19x0, contained one earthworm and pieces of mollusk shell. The earth- 

 worm item might indicate that the gulls have a habit of picking up 

 earthworms when, during heavy storms at sea, they are driven for shelter 

 to pasture lands, congregating in great white fleets to rest between buffet- 

 ings by the storms. 



Herring Gull: 



Larus argentatus smiths onianus Coues 



DESCRIPTION. "Adults in summer: Mantle delicate pearl gray- five outer primaries 

 black toward ends, and tipped with white; a distinct gray wedge on inner web of 

 second quill; rest of plumage white; bill, yellow, with red spot near end of lower 

 mandible; feet pale flesh color. Adults in winter: head and neck streaked with gray- 

 ish. Young: brownish gray; head and neck streaked with white; back mottled with 

 buffy and gray; quills and tail blackish; bill dusky, feet purplish." (Bailey) Downy 

 young: "The downy young are of a buffy yellow color, nearly white below and dusky 

 on the back. They are thickly marked with black spots above. The bill is horn 

 color, with a pink tip, after the white pipping knob has disappeared; the feet, dusky 

 pink." (Bent) Size: "Length 2.2.. 50-16.00, wing 17.2.4, bill 2.. 2.4, depth of bill 

 through angle of lower mandible .68-. 85." (Bailey) Nest: Usual gull nest of grass, 

 weeds, and seaweeds, built on the ground or rocks, though sometimes in trees. 

 Eggs: i to 4, usually z or 3, ground color varying from light blues and grays to dark 

 browns, more or less irregularly marked or blotched with darker browns or 

 chocolate. 



