THE COMMON AMERICAN GULL. 
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head mottled with leaden-grey ; most of the wing-coverts have towards the 
end a spot of greyish-black, and the quills, large coverts, and tail-feathers 
are similarly marked,, the markings on the tail forming a subterminal bar. 
THE COMMON AMERICAN GULL. 
Larus zonorhynchus, Richardson. 
PLATE GOCCXLYI. — Adult Male, and Young in wintek. 
No country can afford greater facilities for the migration of water-birds 
than the United States of America. Even the Gulls are enabled to traverse 
their whole extent from north to south, and in the contrary direction, with- 
out suffering from want of food or of proper resting places. The Gull that 
has been bred in Labrador, or still farther north, can reach the Gulf of 
Mexico without being seriously incommoded by the storms that now and 
then rage along the Atlantic coast. The broad waters of the St. Lawrence 
lead it to our great lakes, from which hundreds of streams conduct it to the 
head waters of the Ohio or the Mississippi, by following the windings of 
which it at length arrives in the warm regions of the Mexican Gulf, on 
whose waters the traveller can spend the winter. That these advantages are 
embraced by many species of Gull, there can be no doubt ; and should you, 
as I have done, repeatedly visit our broad lakes, or the great rivers just men- 
tioned, you would find there, at particular seasons, not only this species, but 
several others, as well as various kinds of Terns, but none of the genus 
Lestris. Lake Erie supplies with food the Larus marinus, L. Argentatus, 
L. atricilla, and some others, as well as the Great, the Arctic, the Roseate, 
and the Black Terns, all of which pass at times over to the Ohio, and from 
thence to the ocean. During these inland movements, the birds seem to be 
peculiarly attracted by certain places, at which they remain for awhile. 
Thus, at the Falls of the Ohio, some species remain for weeks, and wherever 
much shipping occurs on that river or the Mississippi, Gulls are sure to be 
seen gleaning the garbage that has been thrown overboard, or seizing such 
fishes as rise incautiously to the surface of the water. In the months of 
September and October, Gulls and Terns might almost be said to abound on 
