LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GULLS AND TERNS. 119 



One such night chamber — it can not be called a roost — I have found 

 off the beach at Eevere, close to Boston. Here in November and De- 

 cember I have seen great companies of these splendid white birds 

 gathering about sunset from a quarter to a third of a mile off- 

 shore. Sometimes there are two groups of many hundreds each. 

 Once I saw one that looked like a coral atoll, for it was annular with 

 a calm, open area in the middle. I have seen these birds in a strong 

 offshore wind keep in exactly the same place ; so it was evident that 

 each bird, headed up into the wind, must have been paddling hard. 

 This, to our way of thinking, would seem to be a poor manner in 

 which to spend the night — sleep walking with a vengeance. It is 

 possible and indeed probable that later in the evening and during 

 the night, when the beach is free from human intrusion, the birds 

 seek rest on the beach. In fact at sunrise one December day I saw 

 a large flock of herring gulls at Eevere, partly on the beach and 

 partly in the water. In the summer at Ipswich the gulls often spend 

 the night on the beach, although they sometimes resort to the 

 marshes and doubtless also sleep on the water. Many of them fly 

 to the small rocky islands, the Salvages, off the end of Cape Ann, 

 and there, secure from human intrusion, spend the night. In some 

 regions herring gulls roost in trees during the night. 



It is stated that sometimes herring gulls follow a vessel for food 

 for many miles and even across the Atlantic Ocean. Anthony (1906) 

 states that herring gulls turn back some 25 miles at sea on the Pacific 

 coast. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Breeding range.— la. North America east to the Atlantic coast. 

 South to central Maine (Penobscot Bay), central New York 

 (Lake Champlain, Hamilton, Herkimer, and Oneida Counties), 

 southern Ontario (Great Lakes), northern Wisconsin (Green Bay), 

 northern Michigan (Sanilac County), central Minnesota (Mille 

 Lacs), southern Manitoba (Shoal Lake), and central British Colum- 

 bia (Sabine Lake). The western and northern limits are uncertain. 

 Saskatchewan and North Dakota records are confused with call- 

 fornicus; breeding records from Forrester and Kodiak Islands, the 

 Alaska Peninsula, Mount McKinley region, and Yukon Eiver are 

 not substantiated by specimens and may refer to thayeri. A breeding 

 female has been taken at Lake Tagish, Yukon. For the same reason 

 the northern limits which extend up to southern Ellesmere Land 

 are equally uncertain. The species breeds in Iceland, the British 

 Isles, and in Europe east to the White and Baltic Seas and south to 

 northern France. 



174785—21 9 



