AUKS, GULLS, AND PLOVERS 
33 
its egg on the leaf of a cocoanut-palm — truly a wonderful site, and still more wonderful when 
we reflect that it is chosen by one of the Gull Tribe. 
About six species of tern commonly occur in the British Islands, and some five or six 
other species occasionally visit them. 
Skimmers 
The Skimmers are tern-like birds, 
with a very wide geographical distri- 
bution, occurring in India, Africa, and 
North and South America, and re- 
markable for the very extraordinary 
form of the beak. The upper jaw is 
much shorter than the lower, and both 
are compressed to the thinness of a 
knife-blade. This beak is associated 
with, and is probably an adaptation 
to, an equally remarkable method, of 
feeding, which has been admirably 
described by Darwin, who watched 
them feeding in a lake near Maldonado. 
“ They kept their bills,” he says, 
“ wide open, and the lower mandible half buried in the water. Thus skimming the surface, 
they ploughed it in their course; . . . and it formed a most curious spectacle to behold a flock, 
each bird leaving its narrow wake on the mirror-like surface. In their flight . . . they 
dexterously manage with their projecting lower mandible to plough up small fish, which are 
secured by the upper and shorter half of their scissor-like bills.” 
The Gulls 
Gulls are larger and 
heavier birds than terns, with 
longer legs, and shorter, 
thicker beaks. Furthermore, 
with one exception, the tail is 
never forked. Like the terns, 
gulls generally breed in 
colonies, and these are often 
of large size. Young gulls, 
when newly hatched, are quite 
active. Later, when their 
feathers have grown, they are 
found to wear a dress quite 
different from that of the 
parents. Sometimes the adult 
plumage is gained at the end 
of the first year of existence, 
sometimes not until after the 
third year. Gulls feed on 
everything that comes in their way, from fish caught swimming at the surface of the sea to 
worms picked up at the plough-tail. 
One of the commonest and best known of all the gulls is perhaps the species known 
as the Black-headed Gull, which has become so common in the heart of busy London, 
where hundreds may be seen, during the winter months. Hying up and down the river, or 
Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co.J \_P arson's Green 
YOUNG HERRING-GULLS IN THE GREY PHASE OF PLUMAGE 
In their dull grey plumage the young of all gulls are 'very unlike the adults 
photo by Scholastic Photo, Co. j \^Parson's G'cen 
HERRING-GULL 
So called from its habit of follo'wing the shoals of herrings 
