Voyage from Liverpool to Boston. - Off South coast of Ireland.
1911.
August 2
(No 7)
[August 2, 1911]

Remarkable flight of Herring Gulls

pronounced downward stroke of the wing. Theoretically this seems
to me quite possible or even probable while several things that
I noticed to-day, without understanding their significance at the
time, now seem to support such a conclusion rather effectively.
They are as follows: -
1. During the midday hours when the wind was only moderately
strong the Gulls seemed able to glide against it on set wings
for only comparatively short distances rarely much exceeding 100 or
200 yards. During this period the set of their wings when thus
gliding did not strike Mr. Allen or me as very radically
different from that characteristic of similarly brief periods
of sailing when the birds are moving about over bays & harbors
in ordinary weather
2. As the wind increased in force during the afternoon (there was
no appreciable change for a time in its general direction or in the
source of the storm) the Gulls correspondingly increased the