GULLS AND TERNS. 271 
there is a spring freshet, and these not only fly low, 
but walk about the grassy meadows that are out of 
water as if they were within hearing of old ocean 
and feeding in the salt marsh. 
“Gulls are shy birds, and are caught with difficulty. They fly in 
flocks, and carry on their fishing avocations in the sea near the shore. 
Sometimes they cover the rocks, and when disturbed they rise with 
frightened screams. Occasionally, they may be observed on the 
shore, crouched with wings half extended, and apparently enjoying 
the warmth of the sand. They walk with a most dignified carriage. 
On water they swim with ease, but seldom dive, preferring to take 
their prey as it appears at the surface. In the air they fly slowly yet 
gracefully, and often sweep in circles, as if displaying their agility. 
The web-footed birds glory in the agitations of the sea; nothing 
gives them so much delight as a violent storm, for instinct or experi- 
ence has taught them that a storm casts up the mollusks and other 
of the sea inhabitants which are usually beyond their reach, and 
brings them to the surface or leaves them on the beach. 
«How often, as we have watched the horizon darken and the 
storm-clouds gather, have we marked the striking contrast as the 
white gulls and sea-swallows now rose and now fell above the waves, 
waiting in eager expectation for their coming feast !’—MoqQuiNn- 
TANDON. 
The Sea-swallows, or Terns, are seemingly all that 
a bird should be: beautiful in plumage, graceful in 
movement, gentle, and absolutely incapable of doing 
any harm; yet we read of their practical extermina- 
tion in some localities because of a demand for their 
wings to trim hats. The people that are guilty of 
such monstrous cruelty are fiends, whether the men 
who shoot, the men who buy, or the women that 
wear these beautiful birds. 
Terns are somewhat more marine in their habits 
than the gulls. They less seldom, I think, come in- 
land and do not remain day after day, when chance 
