36 WATER BIRDS 



rants if he can, bringing it himself if he must. The nest 

 is a large, soft, and warm aflfair made of dried Farallone 

 weed and occasionally lined with a few feathers. It is 

 also scrupulously clean. No fish scales, fish bones, or 

 other debris is allowed to remain near it. The young 

 gulls, usually three in number, are beauties, covered 

 with grayish buff down and spotted all over with dots 

 of darker. At three weeks old they are mottled black 

 and light ashy. They show no fear, and will allow a 

 person to handle them, only looking surprise from their 

 bright little eyes. One would never believe that such 

 innocent-looking babies could ever become thieves and 

 cannibals. They stay in the nest longer than most of 

 the young sea birds, not leaving it until their wings are 

 fully feathered and strong. Even then they are not like 

 the parents, for, until a year old, all young gulls are 

 mottled brown and white. The brownish-looking gulls 

 flying with the others on our harbors and rivers are not 

 a different species, but are the immature. 



The young gull learns to fish in a unique way. He 

 also learns to steal, but that is another story. He scram- 

 bles with fluttering wings down to the water, accom- 

 panied by the rest of his family. As soon as he is 

 fairly launched, one of the adult birds brings a small fish, 

 and showing it to him, lets it float on the surface. 

 If the youngster is an apt pupil, he snaps at it and 

 usually gets it. If not, it is snatched up by some adult, 

 for might is right in the sea-bird world. If after losing 

 several in this way he becomes discouraged, he is fed, 

 taken ashore for a sun-bath, and in an hour is back for 



