CHAPTER XXXI 
THE ORDER OF LONG-WINGED SWIMMERS 
LONGIPENNES 
The members of the Order of Gulls and Terns appeal to a greater number of admirers than any 
other group of web-footed birds. The reasons are, their wide distribution, both on salt water and 
fresh water lakes; their conspicuous and graceful flight; their partial immunity from wholesale 
slaughter, and their friendliness toward the arch-destroyer, man. Every harbor and every steamer 
track is a safe feeding-ground for these birds, and along thousands of miles of shore line, they are 
the most beautiful wild creatures that greet the eye. 
The three North American Families of this Order are as follows: 
FAMILIES. 
Gulls and Terns, . 
Skimmers, . . . 
Skuas and Jaegers. 
THE GULLS AND TERNS. 
Laridae. 
The Herring-Gull , 1 an old and familiar friend 
which ranges far inland, and also far outward on 
the sea, is the best and most interesting type 
of this Family. It is an ideal Gull, — long- 
winged, large, white and pearl-gray in color, 
strong, yet graceful on the wing, a good fighter, 
and sufficiently plentiful in number to be known 
to millions of people. It inhabits the whole 
sea-coast, and all the salt-water bays and inlets 
of North America, the great lakes, the lakes 
and ponds of Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, and 
several of our larger rivers, such as the Potomac, 
Mississippi, Missouri and Columbia. From 
all their regular routes of travel and places of 
residence, they stray inland for an indefinite 
number of miles. 
The Herring-Gull nests from southern Maine 
and the great lakes northward to the Arctic 
Ocean, and makes its winter home in the United 
States. All trans-Atlantic voyagers have seen 
it far out at sea, almost half way between Sandy 
Hook and Queenstown. 
In Georgian Bay the sight of Gull life on the 
1 La'rus ar-gen-ta'tus. Average length, 24 inches. 
EXAMPLES. 
Herring-Gull; Common Tern. 
Black Skimmer. 
Parasitic Jaeger. 
crystal-clear waters; and clean, bare islets of 
pink granite near Owen Sound was one of the 
most enchanting I ever beheld. Going down 
Puget Sound on a cold and windy day in No- 
vember, a large flock of the same old friends 
followed the steamer for twenty miles, sailing 
along beside us, sometimes within ten feet of 
the rail of the hurricane-deck, — a sight which 
well repaid one for half-freezing in order to see 
it to the most perfect advantage. 
But why wander so far from home to see 
Gulls? Half a mile from the Zoological Park 
is the Williamsbridge Reservoir of the New 
York City water-works. Not long since, cu- 
riosity to see if any winter birds were being 
attracted by that very small but high basin of 
water, led me to climb up and see. To my 
great astonishment, I found a distinguished 
company of sixty-seven Herring-Gulls, standing 
and sitting in serene contentment on the sheet 
of ice that covered one-half the surface of the 
water. It was a nice, quiet, genteel place, 
well below the sweep of the wind; there was. 
plenty of water for the birds to soak their feet 
in when the ice made them too cold, and what 
more could a Gull ask, except a daily delivery 
of fresh fish? 
ORDER 
LONGIPENNES. 
LA’Rl-DAE 
R YN-CHOP' I-DAE, . . 
STER-CO-RAR-I' I-DAE, . 
