The Western Gulls 



Taken in Washington 



YOUNG WESTERN GULL 



Photo by the A uthor 



phlegmatic cormo- 

 rants go hurtling 

 about like meteors. 

 The "Sea-Parrot," 

 who looks like a pirate 

 with the wind tossing 

 his plumes about, en- 

 joys a ride on the gale ; 

 and for all his wings 

 are stubby he can 

 poise on the air like a 

 hawk, or else charge 

 about like a ricochet- 

 ing bullet. The high- 

 est speeds are made 

 against the wind, and 

 I am sure that the 

 Baird Cormorant can 

 do 120 miles an hour 

 in the teeth of a forty- 

 five mile norther. But 

 the Western Gull en- 

 joys the sport most of all. He passes and repasses the crest of the hill 

 just for the fun of the thing. Now he lets the wind blow him up like a 

 lost paper napkin, and now he cleaves it with the nicety of a descending 

 razor. The most striking thing about these wind postures is the position 

 of the feet. These are sometimes thrown violently forward, or else 

 maintained in a perpendicular position to check speed or to cover flaws 

 in the wind. Viewed from any angle, a gull or a shag with feet in full 

 play cuts an odd figure. 



The wings on these occasions are both arched and reefed, and so 

 fierce are the cross currents and so sudden the flaws, that many of the 

 efforts of the most skilled artists look like the first awkward sprawls of a 

 boy on the ice. Every fiber is tested to the utmost. The bird — the gull 

 at least — careens to absolute perpendicularity in banking; and I have seen 

 a gull bring in the tip of one wing so that it nearly touched the body, 

 and release it again in the fraction of an instant, while the other pinion 

 was unchanged. Regarding the situation in a cold, dispassionate light, 

 as one may, seated on the side of a cliff, it is not an easy thing to fly. The 

 birds can have the job for all o' me. 



The nesting of the Western Gull is undertaken in April, and the egg 

 complement of three is provided by May 1st or June 1st, according to 



I390 



