File:American birds, studied and photographed from life (1907) (14727474836).jpg

Identifier: americanbirdsstu00finl (find matches)
Title: American birds, studied and photographed from life
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Finley, William L. (William Lovell), 1876-1953
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York, C. Scribner's sons
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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r par-ticles of food. Protection has made these birds very tame. OldWhitey used to be known to every sailor on the Pensa-cola training-ship, and he showed up for meals as regularlyas the bugle blew. He had his own perch on the bowsprit,and took bread or meat from the hand like any pet. Therewere always several others riding the anchor chain, wait-ing for scraps from the table. Many of the birds werevery expert at catching morsels in the air, as they wereoften fed by the sailors. I have often seen them take acrust of bread in mid-air, rarely missing a catch. The minute a new food supply is found anywhereabout the bay, the news spreads in the gull world by wire-less telegraph. A flock of half a dozen gulls will increaseto as many hundred in an hour or so. You cant see justwhere they come from, but they come. When the steam-dredger started to open the channel of the Oakland es-tuary a whole flock of gulls sailed in and settled at themouth of the long pipe, which was belching forth a mix-
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Gull Habits 217 ture of mud, water, rocks, and clams. It was as bad asa crowd of a thousand noisy newsboys. Such a shoving,clambering, flapping, grabbing! Every clam was gobbledup the minute it struck ground. I have often seen the western herring gull act inways that speak well for his sagacity. On several occa-sions I watched him open clams and mussels. His bill isunfitted for crushing the hard shell. I saw one gull graspa clam in his bill, rise to a height of thirty feet, and dropit to the hard sand and gravel below. He followed it upclosely, but it didnt break. He repeated the same per-formance over fifteen times before he was successful. THE GULL FAMILY The Gull belongs to the family of long-winged swimmers. Theyare experts on the wing and they swim lightly on the water. The gullsare common and easily recognized along the sea-coasts. They live onfish and refuse matter picked up about the harbors. Herring Gull (Larus argentatus): Male and female, alike; back, deli-cate pearl-gray;

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