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T H E C O M M O N A M E R I C A N GULL
LARUS ZONORHYNCHUS, RICHARDSON.
PLATE CCXII. ADULT MALE, AND YOUNG IN WINTER.
No country can afford greater facilities for the migration of waterbirds
than the United States of America. Even the Gulls are enabled to
traverse their whole extent from north to south, and in the contrary direction,
without suffering from want of food or of proper resting places.
The Gull that has been bred in Labrador, or still farther north, can reach
the Gulf of Mexico without being seriously incommoded by the storms that
now and then rage along the Atlantic coast. The broad waters of the St
Lawrence leads it to our great lakes, from which hundreds of streams
conduct it to the head waters of the Ohio or the Mississippi, by following
the windings of which it at length arrives in the warm regions of the
Mexican Gulf, on whose waters the traveller can spend the winter. That
these advantages are embraced by many species of Gull, there can be no
doubt; and should you, as I have done, repeatedly visit our broad lakes,
or the great rivers just mentioned, you would find there, at particular
seasons, not only this species, but several others, as well as various kinds
of Terns, but none of the genus Lestris. Lake Erie supplies with food
the Larus marinus, L. argentatus, L. atricitta, and some others, as
well as the Great, the Arctic, the Roseate, and the Black Terns, all of
which pass at times over to the Ohio, and from thence to the ocean.
During these inland movements, the birds seem to be peculiarly attracted
by certain places, at which they remain for a while. Thus, at the
Falls of the Ohio, some species remain for weeks, and wherever much
shipping occurs on that river or the Mississippi, Gulls are sure to be seen
gleaning the" garbage that has been thrown overboard, or seizing such
fishes as rise incautiously to the surface of the water. In the months of
September and October, Gulls and Terns might almost be said to abound
on our great streams, and many return thither during the spring months
on their way northward. Nay, to some species of Tern, the beautiful
sand-bars and rocky beaches that occur here and there, are so attractive as
to induce a few to remain and breed there. This is especially the case
with the Black Tems, some of which rear their young by the rapids of
COMMON AMERICAN GULL. 99
the Ohio below Louisville, amidst the roaring sounds of which may be
heard their shrill and continued cries.
You must not suppose, however, that all the Gulls which migrate in
that country take the same route; for thousands follow the sinuosities of
our Atlantic coast, some of them perhaps proceeding as far south in that
direction as those which follow our rivers. My opinion is, that the feebler
individuals of the different species follow the inland route, while the older
and more hardy birds keep along the shores of the ocean. The examination
of numerous specimens on both of these extensive tracks has almost
rendered this a matter of certainty, yet I should be much pleased to find
this opinion corroborated by the observations of any other student of
nature.
While on the coast of Florida, in the winter of 1832-33, I every day
saw Gulls of many species, but among them all were no adult birds, with
the exception of the Black-headed Gull of WILSON, which was very
abundant. This greatly tended to strengthen my opinion, that the young
gulls are of more delicate constitution than their parents, which are better
enabled to stand the rigours of the winter in the Middle States, where
they are found equally abundant at that season. For similar reasons, I
also feel assured that the oldest birds are those which go farthest north to
breed, and that the older and stronger individuals are larger, with more
purely tinted plumage, and with the colours of their legs, feet and bills,
as well as of the circle around the eye, more vivid, than those which, although
found breeding, yet have not acquired their full maturity. In
consequence of these circumstances, some species have been described as
forming several, and the great difference between the plumage of the young
and the old birds has led to similar errors.
Our Common Gull is seldom seen in the adult plumage of winter beyond
the shores of Maryland southward, or in full summer plumage beyond
the Bay of New York, and this rarely after the middle of April,
as at that period they gather into flocks, and remove farther north to
breed. The places to which this species resorts for that purpose, and
which I have visited, are several islands between Boston and Eastport,
another close to Grand Manan at the entrance of the Bay of Fundy, the
great Gannet Rock of the Gulf of St Lawrence, and certain rocky isles
in the deep bays on the coast of Labrador.
This species, although one of those most abundant on our coast, is so
well acquainted with the artifices of man, that it keeps more than others
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