th 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.]

THE MOCKING BIRD.

The Mocking Bird is regarded as the chief of songsters, for in
addition to his remarkable powers of imitation, he is without a rival
in variety of notes. The Brown Thrasher is thought by many to have a
sweeter song, and one equally vigorous, but there is a bold brilliancy
in the performance of the Mocker that is peculiarly his own, and which
has made him _par excellence_ the forest extemporizer of vocal melody.
About this of course there will always be a difference of opinion, as
in the case of the human melodists.

So well known are the habits and characteristics of the Mocking Bird
that nearly all that could be written about him would be but a
repetition of what has been previously said. In Illinois, as in many
other states, its distribution is very irregular, its absence from
some localities which seem in every way suited being very difficult to
account for. Thus, according to "Birds of Illinois," while one or two
pairs breed in the outskirts of Mount Carmel nearly every season, it
is nowhere in that vicinity a common bird. A few miles further north,
however, it has been found almost abundant. On one occasion, during a
three mile drive from town, six males were seen and heard singing
along the roadside. Mr. H. K. Coale says that he saw a mocking bird in
Stark county, Indiana, sixty miles southeast of Chicago, January 1,
1884; that Mr. Green Smith had met with it at Kensington Station,
Illinois, and that several have been observed in the parks and
door-yards of Chicago. In the extreme southern portion of the state
the species is abundant, and is resident through the year.

The Mocking Bird does not properly belong among the birds of the
middle or eastern states, but as there are many records of its
nesting in these latitudes it is thought to