Table 40.—-An Abridged Life Table for Herring Gulls 
The birds were banded as young in nesting colonies during th 
8 
years 1925 to 1930 inclusive, but the data were not checked 
against the banders' original reports. Each age interval 

x 
Age Found Alive at Mortality Rate 
Interval _ Dead Start of Year Per Cent Per Year 
O-1 302 504, 60 
1-2 59 202 29 
2=3 30 143 21 
3—h, 31 113 27 
LS 21 82 
5-6 23 61 
6=7 8 38 
7-8 4 30 
8-9 6 26 
9-10 5 20 27 
10-11 3 15 
11-12 5 12 
12-13 2 7 
13-1) 1 5 
Wy-15 3 L 
15=16 1 a: 
Total (all ages) 50) 1263 Lo 
Tetal (3-k to 
15~16) 113 kik 27 

Paynter (1949) has calculated that a mean (adult?) mortality 
rate of 14.5 per cent per year would be sufficient to balance the low 
' productivity he encountered at Kent Island in 197. This rate differs 
only slightly from the uncorrected adult mortality rate obtained for 
caspian terns in this chapter and from an overall annual rate of 17 
per cent obtained by Paludan for European herring gulls past their 
first year of lifes; it therefore seems to me to be within the realm 
of possibility. The next life-table study of North American herring 
gulls will, I hope, contrast the results from fresh-water banding 
operations against those carried out under marine conditions. This 
approach may throw some additional information on the band-loss 
complications that appear to have been encountered here. 
Among the conflicting statistics now available for this 
species are the annual mortality rates for young birds (as of 
their first September 1 or fledging date "in early August"). These 
run 2 per cent (Paynter 197), 50 per cent (Paynter 1949), ard 60 
95 
