Description

John Cassin (1813-1869)
Plate 05, The White-headed Gull
From: Illustrations of the Birds of California, Texas, Oregon, British and Russian America
Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1856
Chromolithograph
Paper dimensions:10 x “6
Framed dimensions: 16 x 17

With text below image:
The White-headed Gull is also called Heermann’s gull, named after the nineteenth-century explorer and naturalist Adolphus Lewis Heermann. It lives in the United States, Mexico, and southwestern British Columbia, and nests on Isla Rasa in the Gulf of California. This bird can usually be spotted on shore or out at sea, and is rarely ever seen inland. It has a distinct appearance from other gulls, with its most most eye-catching feature being the pearly white head of the breeding plumage, which contrasts luminously against the dusky gray body and black wings. Because of the concentration of the bird’s breeding colony on the small island of Isla Rosa, whose weather fluctuates from year to year due to El Nino, The International Union of Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources has determined the status of the white-headed gull to be “near threatened.”