1292 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



and they dart from a considerable height into the sea, spearing the small 

 fish with their pointed bills. In this method of feeding they differ entirely 

 from the gulls which have hooked bills and feed upon dead fish that they 

 find floating on the surface. 



Gulls and terns are much alike in their nesting habits for the majority 

 of species build crude nests or lay their eggs in simple depressions in the 



sand or on the rocks, with little 

 or no pretense at nest building. In 

 this respect and also in their eggs, 

 which are olive or drab in ground 

 color, rather heavily marked and 

 sharply pointed, they are quite 



similar to the sandpipers and plov- 

 ers. Indeed they resemble the 

 shorebirds in other respects and 

 in many anatomical characters as 

 well so that most ornithologists 

 today put all of them together in 

 one major group or order. 



The commonest and best known 

 of the twenty-five species of gulls found in North America is the herring 

 gull. It is found throughout trie northern hemisphere, nesting from northern 

 United States and northern France northward, and wintering from the 

 southern part of its breeding range south to the Gulf of Mexico and the Med- 

 iterranean. It is common in winter 

 in New York harbor and in other 



Photograph by G. A. Bailey 



THE BLACK TERN IN SUMMER 



In this plumage the head and underparts are black 

 — an unusual plumage for this family of birds. 



Photcaraph by G. A. Bailey 



A TERN POST 

 A black tern in full plumage. In this plumage it 



harbors, following the ferries and 

 swooping down to pick up pieces of 

 bread or refuse thrown into the 

 water. It follows also the garbage 

 scows in dense clouds and is every- 

 where a valuable scavenger. In 

 the interior the herring gulls are 

 common on all of the Great Lakes 

 and larger bodies of water that do not freeze over, and whenever the 

 ground is not covered with snow, they make sorties to the uplands, often 

 long distances from water, where they find grasshoppers, beetles, and 

 grubs. Gulls always roost on the water, however, so toward night they can 



be seen return- 

 ing to the lake 

 just as they left 

 it in the morn- 

 ing. While on 

 the lake, in ad- 

 dition to picking 

 up dead fish, 

 they occasional- 

 ly rob the loons 

 and mergansers. 

 S o m e t imes a 

 dozen or more 

 gulls hover over 

 the spot where 

 these birds are 



r holograph by G. A. Bailey 



A SIMPLE HOME 



The gulls build crude nests and the terns usually 

 none. This is the nest of a Caspian tern on an 

 island in Georgian Bay. 



Photograph' by G. A. Bailey 



CAMOUFLAGE IN NATURE 



Young gulls and terns are almost impossible to see against the lichen 

 covered rock. Here arc three young herring gulls. 



fishing waiting for one of them to make a catch, and 

 then they will swoop down at it before it has time to 

 swallow its prey. Usually the gulls are so persistent that 

 the diver finally drops the fish, and the gulls fall upon it 

 and begin fighting among themselves. The herring gulls 



