"Every child" who has crossed the ocean or even a New York ferry in winter, knows the big, pearly-gray and white gulls that come from northern nesting grounds in November, just before the ice locks their larder, to spend the winter about our open waterways. On the great lakes and the larger rivers and harbours along our coast, you may see the scattered flocks sailing about serenely on broad, strong wings, gliding and skimming and darting with a poetry of motion few birds can equal. There are at least three things one never tires of watching: the blaze of a wood fire, the breaking of waves on a beach, and the flight of a flock of gulls. Not many years ago gulls became alarmingly scarce. Why? Because silly girls and women, to follow fashion, trimmed their hats with gull's wings until hundreds of thousands of these
Gulls are greedy creatures. No sooner will one member of a flock swoop down upon a morsel of food, than a horde of hungry companions, in hot pursuit, chase after him to try to frighten him into dropping his dinner. With a harsh, laughing cry, akak, kak, akak, kak, kak, they wheel and float about a feeding ground for hours at a time. And they fly incredibly far and fast. A flock that has followed an ocean greyhound all day will settle down to sleep at night "bedded" on the rolling water like ducks while "rocked in the cradle of the deep." After a rest that may last till dawn, they rise refreshed, fly in the direction of the vanished steamer and actually overtake it with apparent ease in time to pick up the scraps from the breakfast table. Reliable sailors say the same birds follow a ship from our shores all the way across the Atlantic. INDEX-5.htm.html#id_242" class="pginternal">242.Ruffed, 237, 137, 138. Robin, iii, vi, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 46, 79, 83, 86, 87, 107, 117, 131, 134, 143, 145, 175, 197, 200, 205, 223, 232, 247, 255. Golden, 146. Ground, 129, 130. Redbreast, 5, 130. Wood, 12. Sandpiper, 249, 250. Least, 249, 251. Semipalmated, 251. Spotted, 251. Sapsucker, 195, 196, 198. Yellow-bellied, 194. Scoter, Surf, 270. Sea-swallow, 272. Shelldrakes, 270. Shrike, Whiskey Jack, 157. Widgeon, 269. Wren, iii, 19, 28, 29, 30, 34, 35, 36, 37, 42, 43, 45, 49, 104, 167, 191. Carolina, 37, 38. House, 33, 97. Marsh, 39, 40, 41, 111. Winter, 37. Woodcock, 128, 252, 253, 254. Woodpecker, iv, 22, 24, 26, 28, 57, 73, 140, 166, 181, 189, 190, 192, 194, 195, 198, 224, 227, 230, 232, 241, 252. Downy, 57, 189, 191, 192, 193, 198. Golden-winged, 199. Hairy, 191, 192, 193, 198. Red-headed, 197, 198, 199. Yellow-bird, Black-winged, 124. Summer, 53. Yellowhammer, 199. Yellow-throat, Maryland, |