USKKL'L lUKDS 
35 
THE HERRING GULL AND COMMON TERN. 
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The gull family is a group beiiehcial to farmers living in a prai- 
rie country. 
The Black Tern, found so abundantly about our prairie sloughs, 
and perhaps the most abundant representative of the group in 
Minnesota, is a good friend of the farmer, for when the sloughs 
are dry, and even before, they consume large numbers of grass- 
hoppers. Amongst others of this family (gulls), Franklin’s Rosy 
Gull is one of the chief breeders within the State’s borders and is 
a voracious eater of grassho])pers, and, while no illustration of this 
bird is available, we are pleased to be able to present an excellent 
drawing of the Common Tern in this pul)lication which will serve 
to illustrate the group- 
The Herring Gull — a good scavenger upon the shore of lake 
or ocean, typihes the larger members of the family and the species 
itself, while not as abundant perhaps as other gulls which breed in 
some of our lakes — is, nevertheless, a Minnesota summer resident, 
arriving in the southern part of the state early in April, shortly 
after that working its way north, where some at least nest in our 
larger lakes, notably Lake Mille Lacs. I have observed them at 
Devils Lake, Otter Tail County, in (Jctober and also hnd the fol- 
lowing observations amongst my notes taken some years ag;o : 
“At Lake Mille Lacs, after the wind has been blowing from the 
East a day or more, these gulls and the two following s])ecies, 
namely, L. dclczvarcnsis and L. Philadelphia, are plenty along the 
west shore, dying up and down the beach and occasionally alight- 
ing to ])ick up small lacustrine mollusks washed ashore with the 
