386 The Plover-like Birds 



THE GULL TRIBE 



(Family Laridce) 



The birds here included, although differing somewhat among themselves, 

 constitute a compact and well-marked group, sometimes called the Long-winged 

 Swimmers. They are mostly gregarious and noisy birds, of large or medium 

 size, with long, slender wings, all of them, especially the Terns, enjoying strong 

 and sustained powers of flight. They have the legs placed nearer the middle of 

 the body than do the Auks, thus standing horizontally rather than erect, while 

 the toes are usually four in number, the three front ones being webbed for swim- 

 ming. They are mainly birds of the ocean, although occasionally found about 

 fresh-water lakes and large ponds, and exceptionally they may take up their 

 permanent abode far inland, as Mr. Hudson relates of the Spot-winged Gull of 

 Argentina. While all are good swimmers the Gulls are particularly so, spending 

 much time on the water ; but their flight is more labored and less graceful than 

 that of the Terns. The food consists of fish and other aquatic life, and also very 

 largely of refuse of all sorts, which accumulates on the surface, especially in har- 

 bors and bays, and in the removal of which they perform an important function 

 in the general economy of nature. Inland they also feed on insects, grasshoppers, 

 grubs, etc., some Gulls regularly following the plow to feed upon such as may 

 be in the freshly upturned soil, while many are fond of the eggs of other birds, 

 and still others kill and devour their feathered kin. In distribution they are 

 mainly cosmopolitan, ranging in suitable locations throughout the globe, although 

 curiously enough no Gulls are found in the vast ocean area between South 

 America and the island-continents of Australia and New Zealand. They nest 

 mainly in colonies, usually on the ground, though "sometimes on rocky ledges, 

 while a few, such as the White Tern (Gygis alba kittlitzi] of the Pacific islands, 

 frequent forests and deposit their single egg on the bare limb of a tree or in bulky 

 nests built in trees. 



The Gulls (Subfamily Larince), of which there are some fifty species, 

 are found almost all over the world, being especially abundant along 

 oceanic shores, but also occurring, where conditions are favorable, about 

 various inland bodies of water. In popular parlance they are distinguished 

 from their near relatives the Terns by their usually larger size and nearly 

 square tails, but in fact this distinction more or less fails, for there are 

 several Gulls with forked or graduated tails and some Terns with almost 

 square tails. They may always be distinguished, however, by the culmcn or 

 ridge along the upper mandible, the terminal portion being decidedly curved 

 in the Gulls and nearly straight in the Terns. In feeding the Gulls as a rule rest 

 on the water, while the Terns hover over or plunge into the water after their 

 food, giving rise to the local name of "Strikers"; some Gulls, as the Laughing 

 Gull, occasionally fly over the land hawking for grasshoppers and other insects. 

 "The predominating color of the adult birds," says Stejneger, "is white with a 

 gray mantle, varying in shade from the most delicate pearl-gray to dark blackish 



