The Ring-billed Gull is a common species throughout eastern North
America, breeding throughout the northern tier of the United States,
whose northern border is the limit of its summer home. As a rule in
winter it is found in Illinois and south to the Gulf of Mexico. It is
an exceedingly voracious bird, continually skimming over the surface
of the water in search of its finny prey, and often following shoals
of fish to great distances. The birds congregate in large numbers at
their breeding places, which are rocky islands or headlands in the
ocean. Most of the families of Gulls are somewhat migratory, visiting
northern regions in summer to rear their young. The following lines
give with remarkable fidelity the wing habits and movements of this
tireless bird:
"On nimble wing the gull
Sweeps booming by, intent to cull
Voracious, from the billows' breast,
Marked far away, his destined feast.
Behold him now, deep plunging, dip
His sunny pinion's sable tip
In the green wave; now highly skim
With wheeling flight the water's brim;
Wave in blue sky his silver sail
Aloft, and frolic with the gale,
Or sink again his breast to lave,
And float upon the foaming wave.
Oft o'er his form your eyes may roam,
Nor know him from the feathery foam,
Nor 'mid the rolling waves, your ear
On yelling blast his clamor hear."
This Gull lives principally on fish, but also greedily devours
insects. He also picks up small animals or animal substances with
which he meets, and, like the vulture, devours them even in a putrid
condition. He walks well and quickly, swims bouyantly, lying in the
water like an air bubble, and dives with facility, but to no great
depth.
As the breeding time approaches the Gulls begin to assemble in flocks,
uniting to form a numerous host. Even upon our own shores their
nesting places are often occupied by many hundred pairs, whilst
further north they congregate in countless multitudes. They literally
cover the rocks on which their nests are placed, the brooding parents
pressing against each other.
Wilson says that the Gull, when riding bouyantly upon the waves and
weaving a sportive dance, is employed by the poets as an emblem of
purity, or as an accessory to the horrors of a storm, by his shrieks
and wild piercing cries. In his habits he is the vulture of the ocean,
while in grace of motion and beauty of plumage he is one of the most
attractive of the splendid denizens of the ocean and lakes.
The Ring-billed Gull's nest varies with localities. Where there is
grass and sea weed, these are carefully heaped together, but where
these fail the nest is of scanty material. Two to four large oval
eggs of brownish green or greenish brown, spotted with grey and brown,
are hatched in three or four weeks, the young appearing in a thick
covering of speckled down. If born on the ledge of a high rock, the
chicks remain there until their wings enable them to leave it, but if
they come from the shell on the sand of the beach they trot about
like little chickens. During the first few days they are fed with
half-digested food from the parents' crops, and then with freshly
caught fish.
The Gull rarely flies alone, though occasionally one is seen far away
from the water soaring in majestic solitude above the tall buildings
of the city.
[Illustration: From col. Chi. Acad. Sciences. RING-BILLED GULL.]