--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 30 number: 6 published: 1927-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, “The Sea Gull,” *Improvement Era* 30, no. 6 (April 1927): 489–492." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3006unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera3006unse start_page: 489 end_page: 492 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1927-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3006unse publication_year: 1927 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1927, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Sea Gull Improvement Era Vol. XXX APRIL, 1927 No. 6 THE SEA GULL Thousands of California sea gulls arrive upon the islands of the Great Salt Lake every Spring from the Pacific ocean, to build their nests and rear their young. The sea gull is protected by law in Utah. Its main home for the season in the Great Salt Lake is Hat Island, locally known as Bird Island. These gulls, with the great blue heron and the white pelican, make up a community rookery each year which is of great interest. Gull parents preempt certain outstanding rock promontories each year as their outlook. Their nests are close besides these limestone upthrusts. They fight viciously to maintain their right of occupancy. Dr. Plummer saysi that the birds are very quarrelsome and particular as to their rights, and there is absolutely no sociability among them, each pair acting for themselves and young, and doing nothing to help their neighbors. It is unusual for a mother gull to hatch and rear all four of her "clutch" of eggs, but our frontispiece proves that it is sometimes done. Gulls mate for the entire season. Many have an idea that they do so for life, but this has not been proved. They fend off any interloper who may come nosing around their particular place, which is chosen for each season. The gulls never feed any chicks but their own. Gulls are found on Gunnison, White Rock and Egg Islands, as well as upon Hat Island, but never in so large numbers as upon the latter. Upon these islands there is no water, save that which comes from rain; and the birdlings receive their food as it is carried to them by their parents. The parents forage for miles around, some having been found two hundred sixty miles from the lake, hunting for forage. The plowed fields of our mountain valleys afford happy feeding grounds for the gulls in Spring and Fall, on which they alight to eat the worms and pests, and gather food for their young. The Entered at the Post Office, Salt Lake City, Utah, as second class matter. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 2, 1918, $2 per annum. Address Room 406, Church Office Building, Salt Lake City, Utah. 490 IMPROVEMENT ERA little birds remain on their nesting place until the parents return, never leaving the spot. In their regular habitat, they are likewise ornamental and use ful to man. Neltje Blanchan, in Birds Worth Knowing, says: "In the wake of the garbage scows that put out to deep water from the harbors of the sea coast and Great Lakes where our large cities are situated, and following the ocean liners for the food thrown overboard from the ship's galleys; or resting in the estuaries of the larger rivers where the refuse floats down towards the tide, flocks of strong-winged gulls may be seen hovering about with an eye intently fastened on every living speck. Enormous feeders, gulls and terns cleanse the waters. Millions of these graceful birds that enliven the dullest marine picture have been sacrificed for no more worthy end than to rest entire or in mutilated sections on women's hats! But now that the people begin to understand what birds do for us, a happier day is dawning for them all." The sea gull has become a sacred bird in Utah, owing to the miracle of their saving the crops of the early Pioneers, a story well known in all the land, and of which the monument in Salt Lake City, on the Temple grounds, is a memorial. No person can look upon that monument without being reminded of the earnest prayers of the Pioneers to God for their protection, and of the marvelous way in which the Lord sent an answer to their pleadings. With this introduction, the reader will find interest in the splendid one-act play, which is printed for the first time in this issue of the Era, and which won the prize in the Improvement Era contest held in 1926.— A. The Gulls They sail the sky like white ships, Dancing on heaven's sea; And the sunshine and the Spring's bloom Embrace their wonderings free. Oh, bright be their glistening wings in the sun, And glad their triumphant call; Nor the day's stress, rior the night's gloom. Shall conceal them, circling all. Gray-winged messengers they are, From the lake sands, on treacherous days; Strong- winged harbingers of God's great love; Vivid exemplars of His mighty ways. Liberty, Idaho EZRA J. POULSEN A Modern Miracle — A Tale of the Sea Gulls In the desert lands of Utah, In the long and long ago, Men had fashioned an oasis, Made the living waters flow From the great flumes in the mountains. Fed by God's eternal snow; Fashioned channels for the water, Which to many an orchard go. Fair the fields and rich the harvests That resulted from their toil; Till a plague of hosts of locust Did the fertile field despoil. Gathered in their meeting houses. With a simple faith and trust, Prayers and pleadings to the Father Of us all, so wise and just, Poured from lips of men and maidens. Lisping child and grey-beard sire. That the locust curse be lifted. Was the burden of desire. "If it be thy will," they pleaded — Lo, the flutter of a wing! Then a mighty cloud in heaven Veiled the sun; and everything Was as if a sudden twilight Fell upon the stricken land; Hearts grew chill — for none among them Could begin to understand. 492 IMPROVEMENT ERA The shrill calling of the sea gull Showed the cloud a living thing; Like a myriad of bright angels Were the sea gulls on the wing. Soon the ground was grey and gleaming, As a sudden fall of snow; While God's answer, swift in coming, Bade the plague of locusts go. Soon the sea gulls had devoured Every locust in the land. That the Lord had heard and answered. No one failed to understand. So the "Garden of the Desert," Land of Utah, fair to see, Wrote this law upon her tablets: That there never more should be Slaughter of a gull in Utah — It should be a sacred bird, Token of a speedy answer To the prayers which God had heard. Days of miracles are ended? Or, perhaps, were never here? God finds ways to send an answer To the pleas that reach his ear. Cedar Falls, Iowa. MARGARET BALL DICKSON A MODERN DESERT RANGER