~ .a powerful tug. At an unusual noise or sudden motion from 
the boat, hundreds of pairs of wings will show a flash of 
silver in the sunlight, will beat the air for a moment with a 
soft sound that spreads to the shore, but gradually the birds 
will again settle upon the raft for a noisy talk or a nap. 
An unusual group of gulls were being watched, be- 
cause they had appeared as early as July seventh near 
Seattle, when the cook of a tug threw overboard the scraps 
of adinner. Each one of the big flock suddenly became alive 
— to the last wing-tip and was into the struggle for a share of 
that food. The lucky ones fled with full mouths unable to 
swallow in peace, followed by a shrieking multitude that 
- appeared to get as much fun out of the chase as a crowd 
of boys or men in a football race to the goal. When at last 
~ the pace slackened enough to give time for stretched mouths 
and necks to bolt the morsels, the logs again became a loaf- 
ing place where tales of summer struggles seemed to be 
told and retold in coaxing chuckles or hoarse cries in a 
language which only birds could entirely understand. 
In March and April, or in late August or early Sept- 
ember the Bonaparte Gulls which are the smallest gulls of 
the West, about the size of a flicker, may be seen going to 
or returning from the north, as they visit the cities. They 
may be wearing the almost black hood, which they put on 
in the spring to adorn their heads and necks during the - 
‘breeding season, that is spent north of the United States, 
except on the cliffs of Alaska. Flocks collect on the tide 
flats under the bridges near the railroad stations in Seattle, 
or the dock at Bremerton seeming to gossip about their 
summer trip. They pay little attention to the whizzing 
automobiles, as they feed with the Brewer Blackbirds 
among the rushes. While some of the birds show a marked 
contrast between the dark hoods and the white bodies, many 
have changed in the fall to the white winter bonnet, which 
is trimmed with little dabs of dusky- -gray in front of the : 
eyes, back of the ears, and on the back of the head. | : 
a 
