1S8 TEE BIRDS OF CALCUTTA. 



close at the tips, and no doubt it does as well as any 

 other, for the whole family carry all their delicate 

 beauty of colour fully exposed, not havirg, like so 

 many birds, hidden charms to display. For they 

 are better ofE than the dwellers on land as regards 

 enemies ; their easy, lazy looking flight is yet well 

 ■calculated to puzzle a hawk, and their habit of 

 flocking at their breeaiog places makes for protection 

 when their helpless offspring need it. Helpless 

 -comparatively, that is to say, for the young Gull, 

 although it does not run about and find its own food 

 like a young duck, is yet open-eyed and downy, 

 and able to get about and look after itself to some 

 extent ; thus being an interestirg link between the 

 active chick and the blind naked helpless nestlings 

 of so many birds. The brown-mottled plumage, 

 -which is the first feathering of the young Gull, is 

 also probably a protection, while it gains strength, 

 of wing and experience, for, as one may see 

 at home, where so many Gulls are bred, it makes 

 the young bird much harder to see when on the 

 shore than is the old one in its grey and white 

 dress. 



Another advantage Gulls have in the struggle for 

 ■existence is their readiness of resource ; their ease 

 and grace of flight is patent to every observer, and 

 though they are not very swift on the wing, they can 



