LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 27 



It seemed to be sheer malevolence on the gull's part, for the yager was merely 

 balancing before and above him in the gale, unmindful of his enemy's presence 

 until the blow fell. Yet it may have been the payment of some ancient grudge. 



The behavior of this and the foregoing species among the gulls 

 and terns along on coasts is well known and has already been well 

 described under the previous species. But the following passage 

 from Audubon (1840) seems worth quoting: 



It generally passes through the air at a height of 50 or 60 yards, flying in 

 an easy manner, ranging over the broad bays, on which gulls of various kinds 

 are engaged in procuring their food. No sooner has it observed that one of 

 them has secured a fish than it immediately flies toward it and gives chase. 

 It is almost impossible for the gull to escape, for the warrior, with repeated 

 jerkings of his firm pinions, sweeps toward it with the rapidity of a peregrine 

 falcon pouncing on a duck. Each cut and turn of the gull only irritates him 

 the more and whets his keen appetite until, by two or three sudden dashes, 

 he forces it to disgorge the food it had so lately swallowed. This done, the 

 poor gull may go in search of more ; the lestris is now for a while contented 

 and alights on the water to feed at leisure. But soon, perceiving a distant 

 flock of gulls, he rises on wing and speeds toward them. Renewing his attacks, 

 he now obtains an abundant supply and at length, when quite gorged, searches 

 for a place on which to alight unseen by any other of his tribe more powerful 

 than himself. 



Fall. — During the months of August and September the jaegers. 

 old and young, leave their northern breeding grounds and start on 

 their southward migration, and the first arrivals often appear on 

 the coasts of New England and California during the former month, 

 showing that some individuals must start very early or must mi- 

 grate very rapidly. Doctor Nelson (1887) says that "the long-tailed 

 species is less frequently found at sea than the last, and is rarely 

 found about the ice pack north of Bering Straits." Numerous rec- 

 ords from the interior of the United States and Canada would seem 

 to indicate that the' main migration route is overland rather than 

 coastwise. 



Winter. — Prof. Wells W. Cooke (1915) makes the remarkable 

 statement that " it seems probable that the long-tailed jaeger does 

 not regularly winter anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. The 

 winter home is in the Eastern Hemisphere, south to Gibraltar on 

 the Atlantic side and to Japan on the Pacific." He evidently regards 

 all the numerous fall records on both coasts and in the interior as 

 accidental occurrences and either overlooks or disregards Audubon's 

 (1840) statement that this species " often ranges " to the coasts of 

 Florida and the Gulf of Mexico in winter; as well as Wayne's (1910) 

 more recent records for South Carolina in December and Florida in 

 February, where it was " observed in numbers." 



