GULLS, a large group of sea-birds found throughout the world and constituting, together with the terns (q.v.), skinners (q.v.), and skuas or jaeger-gulls, the family Lorick' (q.v.). Some 53 species of gulls are known, ranging in size from that of a pigeon to that of a goose. The prevailing color is pure white below and pearl gray above, while some species have a gray or blackish head, and a few are dull gray all over. The young birds of all species are dusky during the first year. They walk with tolerable ease, and swim well, but are incapable of diving. They keep much on the wing, and their flight is rapid, strong a.nd long sustained, even in heavy gales. In sitting they contract their necks and rest on one foot. They nest along the shores in the grass, on rocky cliffs or rarely in small trees, forming the nest of dry grass, sedges, etc., and invariably in colonies, creating a great uproar when their nesting-grounds are visited. The wild characteristic note is, in the bigger species, harsh and querulous, in the smaller a *laughing" or screaming; the lesser skuas give vent to a curious mewing cry and the great skuas to a similar but deeper sound. At the breeding quarters the utterances are naturally more agi tated and shrill, and the parents hang excitedly above a visitor's head. °The food? says Evans, °consists mainly of fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and worms, but is varied in the stronger forms by small mammals, young birds and eggs; the great black-backed gull undoubtedly attacks lambs and weakly ewes; carrion is not uncom monly devoured; and Lams' mac:di:points acts as a scavenger at Buenos Aires, besides clear ing the country of grasshoppers, and robbing the Cayenne lapwing of its insect booty. Skuas give chase to their smaller kin, and force them to disgorge the fishes they have just caught, while even solan geese are sometimes victimized; Larus scopulinus, moreover, which robs the oyster-catcher of New Zealand, is a further in stance of parasitic habits. Insects and their larva, turnips, berries and grain are also eaten by these omnivorous but useful creatures? Most gulls are migratory and scatter far along the coasts during fall and winter in search of food. On the eastern coast of the United States are five species. The large herring-gull
(Larus argentatus) breeds on the coast of Maine and winters to the southward, being abundant about all harbors and along tidal rivers from October to April. Associated with them are sometimes seen the larger black-backed gull (L. marinus). In summer are present the smaller black-headed or laughing gull (L. atri cilia) which nests plentifully on the salt marshes of the Middle and Southern States. The Bona parte's and ring-billed gulls (L. philadelphia and delazvarensis) breed on our northern coasts. In the interior Franklin's gull (L. frank lini) inhabits the lake shores and marshes of the upper Mississippi Valley; while on the Pa cific coast occur several other species. In the arctic regions the most abundant gull is the great Burgomaster (L. glaucus), one of the largest species, which wanders some distance southward in winter. Two other species peculiar to the far north are the pure white ivory gull (Pagophila alba) and Ross's rosy gull (Rhodos tethta rosea). The latter is one of the rarest of birds and one of the most beautiful, the whole under surface being suffused with pink and the neck surrounded by a dainty collar of gray. It has been seen in numbers only by the arctic explorers Murdoch and Nansen. The Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) is another species of circumpolar distribution, peculiar in lacking the hind toe. Several of these species are known on the coasts of Europe or Asia; and the gulls of other parts of the world present little that is peculiar. Large areas of coastal beaches and islands formerly inhabited by gulls in various parts of the world, but especially along the eastern coast of the United States, have been wholly depopulated of these beautiful and useful birds by the incessant robbery of their nests for the sake of the eggs— which are conical in form, and white or greenish, heavily blotched with purple and brown in color — or for the sake of their plumage to be used in millinery trimmings. Protective laws now prevent this waste of life. Consult Evans, 'Birds' (1900) ; Coues, 'Birds of the North west' (1874) ; Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, American Water Birds' (1884); Newton, A., 'A Dictionary of Birds' (London 1896).