The Glaucous-winged Gull 
varied by coarse spotting of dull white and (or) pale buffy. Second year young: As in 
preceding but bill flesh-colored basally; plumage lightening and clearing somewhat 
irregularly, but wings and tail darker by contrast; the tips of the primaries dusky 
gray, sometimes appearing almost blackish. Approaching maturity: Upperparts ashy- 
to pearl-gray, but some clouding of dusky on wing-coverts; terminal portions of pri¬ 
maries of darker gray than in adult and not distinctly white spotted and tipped; under¬ 
parts more or less marked with dusky; bill blackish, clearing (yellow) except in sub¬ 
terminal band, where black persistent in diminishing area. Length of adult very 
variable: 584.2-711.2 (23.00-28.00); average about 673.1 (26.50); wing 406.4-442 
(16.00-17.40); bill 53.3-66 (2.10-2.60), depth at angle 17.8-22.9 (.70-.90); tarsus 67.3 
(2.65). 
Recognition Marks. —Size of occidentalis or larger, and after it, the commonest 
large gull in winter; absence of black in wing distinctive for all but glaucus, from which 
it is distinguished by darker mantle and definite pattern of gray in wing-tip; 2nd 
primary narrowly tipped with white, as compared with L. nelsoni (H.). Young birds 
are of a lighter and more blended coloration than those of L. occidentalis, and their 
primaries and tail-feathers are much lighter. Those of L. occidentalis are invariably 
blackish. 
Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest: As in next species. Eggs: 
3; see description of “Normal Gull Type” under next species. Coloration averages 
lighter as to ground, and pigments darker (redder or more inclined to bister) or greener. 
Av. of 40 eggs in M. C. O. coll.: 70.4 x 49 (2.77 x 1.93); index 70; range of measurements 
64.3-83.6 by 45-53.3 (2.53-3.29 by 1.77-2.10). Season: June; one brood. 
General Range. —Coasts and islands of the North Pacific Ocean, breeding 
from the coast of Washington (Destruction Island) north to Norton Bay, Alaska, 
St. Lawrence Island, and the adjacent mainland of Siberia, and west along the Aleutians 
to the Commander Islands. Retires in winter to open harbors, and migrates as far 
south as Guadalupe Island, Lower California, and on the Asiatic side to Japan. 
Distribution in California. —Common winter resident south along the coast 
to San Diego. Most abundant in San Francisco and Monterey Bays. 
Authorities.—Lawrence ( Lams glaucescens) , in Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., 
vol. ix., 1858, p. 842 (Bodega); Dwight, Auk, vol. xxiii., 1906, p. 35 (desc.; crit.); Jones, 
Wilson Bull., no. 65, 1908, p. 197 (Carroll Id., Wash., breeding; desc. nest and eggs). 
ONLY the sea-faring man may boast of acquaintance with the mighty 
Albatrosses; and only the lucky adventurer may follow the fortunes of the 
sea-fowl amid their sea-girt rocky homes; but there is no man so humble 
that he may not know something of the gull, and from this knowledge 
guess something of the joys of ocean life. To the city man, especially, the 
gull is the one visible point of contact with the Great Beyond of Nature. 
Pray, consider what a benevolent miracle it is that these most improvident 
of God’s creatures, the lairds, are impelled to loiter for a season about the 
doorstep of a great city. These thronging docks, upborne by close-set 
piles, and housing the wares of Occident and Ind, what are they but the 
very ramparts of order, the symbolical breastworks of organized human 
industry now millenniums old! And yet, upon a wooden pedestal hard 
by sits a gull, serene, sedate, unhurried, a son of the wilderness gazing 
