GULLS 28 



was observed in numbers at Mobile and Dauphin Island in 

 February, and again, March 16-20, 1912. At Mobile, Novem- 

 ber 10, 1915, three gulls were seen and by the last of the 

 month they were numerous in the river. There were many 

 about the mouth of Perdido Bay, January 27, 1912, and 

 December 8, 1915, Small numbers were seen in Mississippi 

 Sound, May 16-23, 1911, and November 12-26, 1915, and one— 

 possibly a cripple — on Dauphin Island, June 3, 1914. 



In its migrations this species usually follows the coast line 

 or the larger rivers, but occasionally an individual is found 

 far from water, as in the case of one shot on the campus of 

 the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, at Auburn, in January, 

 1912. A specimen was killed by G. R. Wigley in the Warrior 

 River near Tuscaloosa, in November, 1912 ; and a single bird 

 was seen by the writer in the Tennessee River, at Florence, 

 May 5, 1912. Brannon records one collected at Lock 12, 

 Chilton County, and another captured alive on the Tallapoosa 

 River, Elmore County.* 



General habits. — The herring gull is a strong flyer and 

 rides the water as buoyantly as a duck, though it does not 

 ordinarily swim for any distance. It secures its food chiefly 

 from the surface of the water, but, according to Bent, on rare 

 occasions captures small fish by diving. In the river at 

 Mobile the graceful birds may be seen in numbers at any time 

 during the winter season, feeding close to the docks and about 

 the ships at anchor. Since the passage of the State law which 

 protects all gulls, these birds have become very tame in the 

 harbors, but on the outer beaches, where they are frequently 

 shot at, they are as wary as any bird that flies. The birds 

 are found chiefly in small companies or in loose flocks of con- 

 siderable size. 



Food habits. — Herring gulls feed largely during the winter 

 on refuse floating in the harbors and on garbage thrown from 

 vessels. Under natural conditions they patrol the sea beaches 

 to pick up dead fish and other refuse cast up by the waves and 

 here they secure also live food, such as crabs, clams, mussels, 

 snails, echinoderms, and worms. "Many crabs and moUusks," 

 says Bent, "are broken with the bill, but if this can not be 



•Brannon, Peter A., The Auk, vol. 38, p. 463, 1921. 



