DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 11 



Terns for their annu<al visit. They are never seen in spring. 

 A few v/ear their dark body-clothes, making them look very 

 different from what is expected of a tern. The birds in im- 

 mature plumage, appear more nearly normal. So far as I have 

 seen they are the only terns which resort to the river at that 

 time. They go actively about, at times uttering a rather shrill 

 squeak. They appear never to plunge into the water, but 

 descend lightly to the surface and at once rise again. When 

 the reeds are w'ell grown, the metallic clink of Reed Birds is 

 heard, but their little forms are so lost in the expanse of air 

 that they are not seen as frequently as might be expected. 



Early in the 9th month (September) the first gulls appear. 

 For some time there was much uncertainty in my mind regard- 

 ing the identification of Herring and Ring-billed. Even yet 

 there are cases of doubt. When it is remembered that their 

 colors are almost identical, that either may look, black, gray, 

 bluish, w^hite or parti-colored according to circumstances, and 

 that the lights and distances over the water vary interminably, 

 this need not cause much surprise. The Ringbills are slighter 

 in build than the ponderous Herrings, more airy in flight, rising 

 more easily from the water, more likely to make sudden turns 

 while flying, and work their wings more rapidly. A color 

 difference which appears to be useful and generally reliable is 

 that the Ringbills in immature plumage show the basal part of 

 the tail much whiter than the Herrings in corresponding plum- 

 age. The general habits of the two appear very similar, though 

 I have no record of the Ringbill soaring at great height, as the 

 Herring frequently does. The voices of the two are similar, so 

 far as I have heard them, but that of the Ringbill is rather 

 more shrill on the squealing notes. I have never heard them 

 cackle as the Herrings do. 



At first the Ringbills have it all to themselves, but in 9th 

 month there appear a few Herrings, fore-runners of the winter 

 population. The two species mingle freely together, and even 

 during keen competition for some article of food, I have never 

 seen evidence of ill-feeling of either toward the other. The same 

 may be said of occasions, when Crows also come to the feast. 

 -All through the bright autumn weather the two kinds of gulls 



