il 
2 2 2 
Mackay on the Herring Gull. 
[July 
served, and watch those birds which live ‘along shore,’ as such 
have had their wits sharpened, and evidently have learned that 
“eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” As a result one be- 
I1ABITS OF THE AMERICAN HERRING GULL 
(LARUS ARGENTATUS SMITHSONIAN US) 
IN NEW ENGLAND. 
BY GEORGE H. MACKAY. 
This Gull is the most abundant of those larger Gulls which 
pass the late autumn, winter and spring months on the New Eng¬ 
land coast as well as farther south. Naturally exceedingly wary, 
they will nevertheless frequent the very heart of civilization if 
unmolested, and may be seen any day during the winter in the 
waters surrounding New York City, as also in those around 
Boston, flying and sailing high up over both cities as they pass 
from the water on one side to that on the other. Long continued 
undisturbed occupation of these haunts has rendered them exceed¬ 
ingly gentle and tame. In order to become better acquainted 
with them under more natural surroundings it will be necessary 
to remain at the seashore at some place where they can be ob- 
ally succeed seems certain, for I have seen them eating them, and 
have noticed the broken shells, minus the contents, lying on the 
beach, surrounded by their tracks. They vary this mode of pro¬ 
ceeding in some places by carrying and dropping the clams on a 
cake of ice, or on a rock. 
They are anything but particular in the selection of their food, 
for to them ‘all is fish that cometh to net.’ I have known both 
559 - Geographical Variation in Size in Birds. By Everett Smith. 
Ibid., XIX, No. 18, p. 349. Cites as instances of decrease in size north- 
zvard various species of Loons, Ducks, and the Herring Gull. States that 
his own observations on not only birds, but animals and fishes, have con¬ 
vinced him that there is one universal rule of variation, which has been 
given by J. A. Allen, as follows : “The maximum physical development 
of the individual is attained where the conditions of environment are most 
favorable to the life of the species.” AtneyiOStn fjtlifiiss 
I 
m 
176. The Herring Gull and the Ring-bill on Georgian Bay. By Rev. 
J. A. Langille. Ibid., XVII, Nov. 17, 1881, p. 307.-“On the habits, etc., 
of these species at their breeding haunts in Georgian Bay. 
