CHAPTER XXXVII. 



LONGIPENNES. 



Long -winged Swimmers Altricial. 



These are the long- winged swimmers; gulls, terns, 

 petrels, and albatrosses, the wings, in many of the birds, 

 reaching far back of the tip of the tail. The hind toe is 

 elevated, very small, or absent, according to the repre- 

 sentative bird of the order 

 under examination, but there 

 are but two webbings. (Fig. 

 117.) These are all sea birds, 

 excellent swimmers, and 

 equally skillful on the wing. 

 Gulls are often seen inland 

 as well as along the sea-coast 

 though most species are truly 

 marine or nearly so. Their 

 distribution is nearly world- 

 wide. As to their habits, gulls 

 may be classed as oceanic, or 

 inland lake or river gulls. 

 Bonaparte's gull, migrating, FlG II7 ._p a imate foot of a tern, 

 may be found in localities 



reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; though it 

 usually nests north of our northern boundary. Franklin's 

 gull is inclined to nest inland. The inland water gulls, 

 wintering, as many of them do, in Mexico, in coming 

 north to Minnesota and Wisconsin, or to Manitoba for 

 the nesting season, have been led, at least a few of them, 



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