Page:Condor18(2).djvu/9

 Mar., 1916 SEA GULLS AT THE EXPOSITION 47 innocence--only to avoid being stepped upon! (See figs. 10, 11.) As confi- dence increased between the leathered and the human visitors to the Exposi- tion, many people grew interested in watching and feeding the gulls, and many efforts were made to get them to eat from a person's hand; but when it came to close contact, a certain wariness was always exhibited, and while stories of such confidence were circulated the writer neither saw nor succeeded in bringing about such an instance. In fact, even when a person would remain perfectly still in a sitting position for a good while at a time, it was hard to induce one of the birds to pick up a piece of bread nearer than a couple of feet away from one's own feet (figs. 12, 13, 14). Strange to say, the first comers in the fall seemed to be almost all imma- ture birds, and a large proportion of them appeared to be birds of the year, as they were in the immature mottled plumage with none of the pearl gray or plumbeous tints showing in the mantles. Later on, older birds seemed more numerous, and toward midwinter the proportion of adults increased greatly. About the middle of November, at the time the writer first noticed the arrival Fig. 11. GETTING OUT OF THE WAY of the gulls on the Exposition grounds, few but Ring-billed Gulls (Larus dela- warensis) were to be seen. Later on, an occasional Western Gull (Larus occi- dentalis), or California Gu]] (Larus californicus), appeared among the smaller variety, though it was impossible to say which was which of the two latter species on account of the difficulty in distinguishing immature birds on short notice when one cannot examine the subjects intimately. Still later, in Decem- ber, appeared the Glaucous-winged Gull (Larus glaucescens), easily discernible by its larger size and different markings, and an occasional Glaucous Gull (Larus hyperboreus) mingled with the throng, most of these still being in im- mature plumage but with the color of the adult mantle showing to a greater or less extent. No adult Glaucous Gull was distinguished, but careful study of two or three individuals in immature plumage on different occasions led to the conclusion that the subject under consideration belonged to this species. Upon one of these occasions Walter K. Fisher, of Stanford University, accom- panied the writer and concurred in such an opinion. The Herring Gull did not seem to participate in the general enjoyment