Until the enactment of a federal law in 1913, supported by treaties with Canada and Mexico, they were not protected. By that time a few species had become extinct and others, such as the Royal and Gull-billed terns, almost wiped out by periodic raids for the eggs on their nesting colonies. In the latter part of the 19th century and the first decade of this one, women wore big hats adorned with furbelows and feathers. Public opinion aroused by Audubon societies, and the Plumage Act ended that and saved them. Many people confuse terns with gulls but, although closely related, they have noticeable differences.
Most terns are slim and stream-lined.
Gulls are more heavily built, with broader wings and square or rounded tails. Both terns and gulls have webbed feet, swim easily, and gulls commonly alight on water to feed or rest. Gulls are valuable as scavengers. Terns prefer live food and seldom aligm on water but plunge headlong into it to capture prey beneath the surface. On the coast of Maine we saw a fishing vessel put out nets and fill her holds with tons of fish where thousands of terns were circling, shrieking and diving into a dense mass of herring driven to the surface by a hungry school of bluefish.