GULLS AND TERNS: RING-BILLED GULL 
289 
shoulders or farther; at other times, after scanning the water from above, 
they would drop lightly down, alighting on the surface in a sitting 
posture. Protected by the hunting signs they followed down the out¬ 
let close beside us, diving fearlessly within a rod or so of us, while we 
looked on admiringly. 
Additional Literature—Bailey, F. M., Condor, XX, 64-68, 1918— Tyler, 
J. S., Condor, XIX, 167-168, 1917.— Wetmore, Alexander, U. S. Dept. Agr. Bull. 
1359, 8-12, 1925. 
GULLS AND TERNS: Family Laridae 
GULLS: Subfamily Larinae 
The plumage of the Gulls and Terns is long and dense on the breast, 
as they rest on the water. In the Terns the tail is forked; in the Gulls, 
mostly even or rounded. The sexes are alike, molting twice a year, and 
in breeding plumage may have bill, mouth, eyelids, and feet ornamented 
with red or yellow, the head black, or the breast pink. The immature 
take two or three years to reach the white adult plumage. Both 
Gulls and Terns nest in colonies on rocky shores, cliffs, drift, or beaches, 
and more rarely in trees. The young, though covered with down, 
stay in the nest for several days and are fed by their parents till able 
to catch their own food. Both Gulls and Terns are of value, not only 
as insect destroyers but as scavengers, especially about harbors and 
waterways. 
References—Bent, A. C., U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 113, 1921.— Cooke, W. W., 
U. S. Dept. Agr. Bull. 292, 1915.— Dwight, Jonathan, Auk, XVIII, 49-63, 1901- 
Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. LII, Art. Ill, 63-401, 1925 (plumages, molts, dis¬ 
tribution, etc.).— Miller, R. C., Condor, XXV, 5-15,1923 (flight).— Thayer, G. H., 
Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom, 72-75, 1909. 
RING-BILLED GULL: Lfirus delawarensis Ord 
Plate 30 
Description. — Length: 18-20 inches, wing 13.6-15.7, bill 1.5-1.7, tarsus 1.9-2.4. 
Adults in summer plumage: While except for pale gray mantle and black ends of wing 
quills; outside quill with large white spot near tip; iris yellow or cream color; bill yellow 
with black ring near tip; feet and legs yellowish or greenish. Adults in winter plumage: 
Head and neck (except chin, throat, and foreneck) streaked with brownish gray. 
Young (first autumn): Uppcrparts brownish, the feathers margined with grayish 
buff; tail with wide dusky band and white tip; underparts white, spotted or clouded 
with brown laterally; naked orbital ring bluish; legs and feet grayish; bill dark, with 
flesh-colored base. 
Range— Breeds from southern Alaska, Great Slave Lake, Hudson Bay, and 
Labrador south to southeastern Quebec, North Dakota, southern Colorado, northern 
Utah, and southern Oregon; winters from Washington, possibly southern British 
Columbia, Montana, the Great Lakes, and Maine south to the Gulf Coast, Cuba, and 
southern Mexico. 
State Records.— Though breeding in southern Colorado near the State line, . 
the Ring-billed Gull has not yet been detected nesting in New Mexico. [Immature, 
