II 



GULLS, TERNS, AND PETRELS 



HERRING GULL, 1 



April 4, 1852. There are three great gulls sailing in 

 the middle [of Fair Haven] . Now my shouting (per- 

 chance) raises one, and, flying low and heavily over 

 the water, with heavy shoulders and sharp beak, it ut- 

 ters its loud mewing or squeaking notes, — some of 

 them like a squeaking pump-handle, — which sound very 

 strange to our woods. It gives a different character to 

 the pond. 



April 15, 1852. Thinking of the value of the gull to 

 the scenery of our river in the spring, when for a few 

 weeks they are seen circling about so deliberately and 

 heavily yet gracefully, without apparent object, beating 

 like a vessel in the air, Gilpin 2 says something to the 

 purpose, — that water-fowl " discover in their flight some 

 determined aim. They eagerly coast the river, or return 

 to the sea ; bent on some purpose, of which they never 

 lose sight. But the evolutions of the gull appear ca- 

 pricious, and undirected, both when she flies alone, and, 

 as she often does, in large companies. — The more 

 however her character suffers as a loiterer, the more it 

 is raised in picturesque value, by her continuing longer 



1 [Most, if not all, of the large gulls seen by Thoreau at Concord 

 were doubtless of this species.] 



2 [William Gilpin, Remarks on Forest Scenery, London, 1794.] 



