cky country south of the newly discovered Central Park. _Eheu
fugaces!_

There was a long interval of years after that when the sea-gulls of the
harbour did not especially interest me. But now again, of late, I have
begun to find delight in them. Conscience, awakened by responsibility,
no longer permits those surreptitiously repeated voyages without a
repeated fare. But I go through the gate at the end of each voyage, and
consider twelve cents a reasonable price for the pleasure of travelling
up and down the North River for an hour and watching the city gulls in
their winter holiday.

I know a little more about them now. They are almost all herring gulls,
although occasionally a stray bird of another species may be seen. The
dark-gray ones are the young. They grow lighter and more
innocent-looking as they grow older, until they are pure white, except
the back and the top of the wings, which are of the softest pearl gray.
The head and neck, in winter, are delicately pencilled with dusky
lines. The bill is bright yellow and rather long, with the upper part
curved and slightly hooked, for a good hold on slippery little fish.
The foot has three long toes in front and a foolish little short one
behind. The web between the front toes goes down to the tips; but it
makes only a small paddle, after all, and when it comes to swimming,
the loon and the duck and several other birds can easily distance the
gull. It is as a floater that he excels in water sports; he rides the
waves more lightly and gracefully than any other creature.

"The gull, high floating like a sloop unladen,
Lets the loose water waft him as it will;
The duck, round-breasted as a rustic maiden,
Paddles and plunges, busy, busy, still."

But it is when the gull rises into the air, where, indeed, he seems to
spend most of his time, that you perceive the perfection of his design
as a master of motion. The spread of his wings is more than twice the
length of his body, and every feather of those long, silvery-pearly,
crescent fans seems instinct with the passion and the skill of flight.
He rises and falls without an effort; he swings and turns from side to
side with balancing motions like a skater; he hangs suspended in the
air immovable as if he were held there by some secret force of
levitation; he dives suddenly head foremost and skims along the water,
feet dangling and wings flapping, to snatch a bit of food from the
surface with his crook