78 BULLETIN 113, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



[ocks of these pretty birds are frequently seen beating back and 

 orth, adroitly catching insects on the wing, and their stomachs are 

 ften packed full of such food. Many insects are gleaned from the 

 urf ace of still pools or picked up from the drift rows of decaying 

 egetation along the shores. Mr. Arthur H. Norton (1909) says that 

 ti Maine it "has been found feeding over rafts of drifting sea- 

 reeds, when its diet was found to consist of maggots, probably 

 toleopa frigida — a fly that breeds at high-water mark in decaying 

 eaweeds {Algae and Zostera)." Nuttall (1834) examined two that 

 were gorged with ants and their eggs, and some larvae of moths in 

 ieir pupa state." On the seacoast they live on small fish, shrimps, 

 ad other surface-swimming crustaceans, marine worms, and other 

 nail aquatic animals. Apparently very little, if any, vegetable 

 aod is taken. 



Behavior. — The flight of this species is very light and buoyant, as 

 ell as active and graceful. It is more tern-like than gull-like, and 

 ; might easily be overlooked in a flock of loitering terns. When 

 toving about looking for food its flight seems listless and desultory; 

 rery stroke of its long wings lifts its light body perceptibly, as 

 ■ drives it along much faster than it seems. Like snowflakes 

 afted by the wind the loose flock drifts along; one hardly realizes 

 lat it has come before it has swept away beyond our vision. Yet 

 ith all this apparent listlessness there is no lack of the power of 

 mtrol; it can breast the heaviest storms, it can rise and fall over 

 le crests of the largest waves, and can go whither it will with the 

 tmost ease and grace. It swims with equal buoyancy and grace, 

 isting on the surface as lightly as an eggshell. I have sometimes 

 en it dive, though its food is often picked up while it is swimming 

 l the surface ; but more often it drops lightly down in the air, pick- 

 g the morsel from the water with its bill and perhaps touching 

 Le surface with its feet. 



Its voice is not powerful, but when feeding in flocks it is often 

 xite talkative. Doctor Townsend (1905) says that " occasionally 



emits a harsh, rasping cry, but as a rule it is silent." Neltje 

 lanchan (1898) describes its note as " a plaintive shrill, but rather 

 eble cry, that was almost a whistle." 



Fall. — Of the fall migration of this gull in Ohio, Prof. Lynds 

 mes (1909) writes i 



In my experience this gull is far more numerous on both sides of Cedar Point 

 nd spit than elsewhere along the lake, and the times of maximum numbers 

 :ur between November 1 and December 30. During the last three winters I 

 ve found a flock of from 50 to 500 birds ranging along the shore of the sand 

 it as long as there remained open water, which was well into January. They 

 t much like terns diving headlong into the water for fish, but can always be 

 idily distinguished from them by the almost sparrow-like conversational notes 

 jtead of the harsh ter-r-r of the terns. They seem to prefer the vicinity of 



