TOWN GULLS 



SPRINGTIME is excellent, but it is not all tulips, 

 crocuses, and " daffodillies rare." From the point 

 of view of the dweller in towns the season of bud 

 and blossom, if a great bestower of good things, 

 is in some measure a robber as well. To those 

 who take no careful note of such things the long 

 list of birds that dwell in or visit towns during 

 winter is an astonishment. It runs into dozens, 

 and includes many which are by no means the 

 most common of avian names. But with the 

 advance of spring most of these town -seeking 

 species bid a ready or reluctant farewell to urban 

 scenes, and betake themselves to the fields, the 

 hedges, or the shore. Reluctant, because there 

 are some birds which in modern times have 

 developed a fancy for town life which only the 

 strongest of natural instincts can overcome, and 

 notable among them are the gulls. '' The wild 

 seamew " has a place all his own in the stock 

 scenery of romantic literature. There he is the 

 very spirit of aloofness and self-dependence. He 

 rides upon the storm, and experiences all the 

 primal emotions which surge through Ossianic 

 poetry. Perhaps the gull was once like that. In 

 our time there is not a bit of poetry in him, and 



