Mar., 1916 
CHARACTERISTIC BIRDS OF THE DAKOTA PRAIRIES 
57 
contrasting well with its jet black head. On it would come with bill pointing 
down till suddenly it put on brakes by spreading its tail till from below the 
white under coverts gave the appearance of a white tail. Checking its motion 
so abruptly that it would almost go tail over head, it would plump into the 
water bill first, giving the droll effects of a sensient bill in pursuit of its food. 
Sometimes the handsome Ilydrochelidon would flap slowly low over the sur- 
face, its black head and neck mirrored in the water; again it would hover 
above the lake like a Sparrow Hawk, and dive like a shot arrow. 
A white Tern, the Common Tern, that I watched on Stump Lake hunting 
back and forth along three or four yards of shore, would hover, body almost 
motionless, in the face of the wind, looking down watching the incoming 
waves with black-crowned head bent and red bill pointing down till its quarry 
was espied, when it would drop straight as a plumb line so close before the 
oncoming waves that it would be spattered by the foam ; then with its morsel 
secure in its bill it would rise again in the teeth of the wind sometimes almost 
as straight as it had dropped, sometimes with a graceful scoop upward. Back 
and forth and up and down its short beat it came and went while the Franklin 
Gulls sat in the sun, walked soberly along the beach, or flew out over the lake 
to ride the waves, rocking like miniature boats with black bows and sterns. 
The little Tern when tired of hunting joined the Gulls on a sand spit, as it lit, 
holding its wings for a moment high over its back, in the beautiful pose so 
often assumed by water birds. 
On the quiet side of the spit the Franklin Gulls disported themselves, 
some bathing — splashing and ducking — others feeding. A comical effect was 
produced by one that was looking for food with its head under water, for its 
raised wings balanced a headless body. When the head reappeared with a 
tidbit dangling from the bill, an observing neighbor made a dash for the 
hardly won morsel. While the Franklin Gulls, some with black heads, some 
with white foreheads and smoky crowns, amused themselves on the sand spit, 
a few of the large Ring-bills stalked around among them conspicuously. After 
a storm a close row of the Franklins sat on the lake side of the sand spit with 
the spray dashing over them. Forty or fifty of them sat in a row at one time 
facing the wind but with heads turned back resting on their shoulders so that 
in looking down the shore a long line of gleaming white gull breasts shone 
in the sun, a beautiful picture against its background of pale green water. 
Great numbers of the black-headed Gulls were massed on points and sand bars 
along Devil’s Lake, early in July, while others were seen performing aerial 
maneuvers, circling in complex form, mulling around and around high in 
the air. 
But franklini is not to be remembered as a shore Gull. Going to my 
window in a farm house one day I started with surprise, for a flock of the 
black-headed birds were flying swiftly in, apparently headed straight for the 
wall of the house. Wind Gulls they are called locally, as they are said to 
circle around high in the sky “hollering” before a storm. But they are most 
widely known for their habit of following the plow — four-horse gang plows I 
saw them with. Ring-billed Gulls, too, were often met with, flying low over 
the broken ground or sweeping over the grassy swells looking for small 
rodents. 
It always gave a jolt to one’s preconceived notions of Gulls to meet them 
on land; but after coming to know the great prairies that roll on to a blue 
