GUIylyS AND TERNS OF NEW ENGLAND. 169 
the contrast is very great between their dusky garb, and 
the pure white of their elders. Youthful beauty does not 
count for much among gulls. They do not attain mature 
plumage until the third year. 
The next gull, the Ring billed (Tams delawarensis), is 
more exclusively our own property, and is more common in¬ 
land than on the coast. He is confined to North America, 
breeding from Minnesota and Newfoundland north. New 
Knglanders only see him during immigration along the 
coast, in early spring and late fall. He winters from Tong 
Island southward, but shows a preference for certain local- 
alities, being rare in others. 
• He is five inches shorter than* the herring gull, though 
almost an exact counterpart in plumage, the first primary 
lacking the terminal white spot. The detection of this re¬ 
quires a bird in the hand, but he has one characteristic 
mark, that gives him his name, the black ring around his 
big, yellow bill. The difference in size might be of use in 
identification if the two birds were seen together, as often 
happens, but the best point to me is an indefinable differ¬ 
ence in actions. The first one I saw I suspected and watched 
till he showed me his diagnostic ring. 
The last bird of this group is the great black backed gull 
(Tarus marinus). To me he is the most majestic bird that 
ever deigns to visit us. His back and wings, except the 
tips of the primaries, are dark slate color, almost black, the 
rest of the plumage being pure white. He is from twenty 
eight to thirty inches long, almost as large as an eagle, and 
indeed, he looks it. 
Commonly he is called the Saddle back or Coffin carrier, 
from the shape of the black mark on his back; but he bears 
his burden lightly, as he soars high in the air, watching 
with keen eye for some floating morsel of food, or a smaller 
bird whom he can rob of a hard earned meal. He reminds 
me of an unscrupulous game warden, who watches from 
