The Western Gulls 
phlegmatic cormo¬ 
rants go hurtling 
about like meteors. 
The “Sea-Parrot,” 
who looks like a pirate 
with the wind tossing 
his plumes about, en¬ 
joys a ride on the gale; 
and for all his wings 
are stubby he can 
poise on the air like a 
hawk, or else charge 
about like a ricochet¬ 
ing bullet. The high¬ 
est speeds are made 
against the wind, and 
I am sure that the 
Baird Cormorant can 
do 120 miles an hour 
in the teeth of a forty- 
five mile norther. But 
the Western Gull en¬ 
joys the sport most of all. He passes and repasses the crest of the hill 
just for the fun of the thing. Now he lets the wind blow him up like a 
lost paper napkin, and now he cleaves it with the nicety of a descending 
razor. The most striking thing about these wind postures is the position 
of the feet. These are sometimes thrown violently forward, or else 
maintained in a perpendicular position to check speed or to cover flaws 
in the wind. Viewed from any angle, a gull or a shag with feet in full 
play cuts an odd figure. 
The wings on these occasions are both arched and reefed, and so 
fierce are the cross currents and so sudden the flaws, that many of the 
efforts of the most skilled artists look like the first awkward sprawls of a 
boy on the ice. Every fiber is tested to the utmost. The bird—the gull 
at least—careens to absolute perpendicularity in banking; and I have seen 
a gull bring in the tip of one wing so that it nearly touched the body, 
and release it again in the fraction of an instant, while the other pinion 
was unchanged. Regarding the situation in a cold, dispassionate light, 
as one may, seated on the side of a cliff, it is not an easy thing to fly. The 
birds can have the job for all o’ me. 
t he nesting of the Western Gull is undertaken in April, and the egg 
complement of three is provided by May ist or June 1st, according to 
Taken in Washington Photo by the Author 
YOUNG WESTERN GULL 
1390 
