The Glaucous-winged Gull 



varied by coarse spotting of dull white and (or) pale buffy. Second year young: As in 

 preceding but bill flesh-colored basally; plumage lightening and clearing somewhat 

 irregularly, but wings and tail darker by contrast; the tips of the primaries dusky 

 gray, sometimes appearing almost blackish. Approaching maturity: Upperparts ashy- 

 to pearl-gray, but some clouding of dusky on wing-coverts; terminal portions of pri- 

 maries of darker gra}' than in adult and not distinctly white spotted and tipped; under- 

 pays more or less marked with dusky; bill blackish, clearing (yellow) except in sub- 

 terminal band, where black persistent in diminishing area. Length of adult very 

 variable: 584.2-711.2 (23.00-28.00); average about 673.1 (26.50); wing 406.4-442 

 (16.00-17.40); bill 53.3-66 (2.10-2.60), depth at angle 17.8-22.9 (.70-. 90); tarsus 67.3 

 (2.65). 



Recognition Marks. — Size of occidentalis or larger, and after it, the commonest 

 large gull in winter; absence of black in wing distinctive for all but glaucus, from which 

 it is distinguished by darker mantle and definite pattern of gray in wing-tip; 2nd 

 primary narrowly tipped with white, as compared with L. nelsoni (H.). Young birds 

 are of a lighter and more blended coloration than those of L. occidentalis, and their 

 primaries and tail-feathers are much lighter. Those of L. occidentalis are invariably 

 blackish. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest: As in next species. Eggs: 

 3; see description of "Normal Gull Type" under next species. Coloration averages 

 lighter as to ground, and pigments darker (redder or more inclined to bister) or greener. 

 Av. of 40 eggs in M. C. O. coll. : 70.4 x 49 (2.77 x 1.93) ; index 70; range of measurements 

 64.3-83.6 by 45-53.3 (2.53-3.29 by 1.77-2. 10). Season: June; one brood. 



General Range. — Coasts and islands of the North Pacific Ocean, breeding 

 from the coast of Washington (Destruction Island) north to Norton Bay, Alaska, 

 St. Lawrence Island, and the adjacent mainland of Siberia, and west along the Aleutians 

 to the Commander Islands. Retires in winter to open harbors, and migrates as far 

 south as Guadalupe Island, Lower California, and on the Asiatic side to Japan. 



Distribution in California. — Common winter resident south along the coast 

 to San Diego. Most abundant in San Francisco and Monterey Bays. 



Authorities. — Lawrence (Larus glaucescens) , in Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., 

 vol. ix., 1858, p. 842 (Bodega); Dwight, Auk, vol. xxiii., 1906, p. 35 (desc. ; crit.); Jones, 

 Wilson Bull., no. 65, 1908, p. 197 (Carroll Id., Wash., breeding; desc. nest and eggs). 



ONLY the sea-faring man may boast of acquaintance with the mighty 

 Albatrosses; and only the lucky adventurer may follow the fortunes of the 

 sea-fowl amid their sea-girt rocky homes; but there is no man so humble 

 that he may not know something of the gull, and from this knowledge 

 guess something of the joys of ocean life. To the city man, especially, the 

 gull is the one visible point of contact with the Great Beyond of Nature. 

 Pray, consider what a benevolent miracle it is that these most improvident 

 of God's creatures, the birds, are impelled to loiter for a season about the 

 doorstep of a great city. These thronging docks, upborne by close-set 

 piles, and housing the wares of Occident and Ind, what are they but the 

 very ramparts of order, the symbolical breastworks of organized human 

 industry now millenniums old! And yet, upon a wooden pedestal hard 

 by sits a gull, serene, sedate, unhurried, a son of the wilderness gazing 



