Aversion to Saline Solutions in Starlings, Purple Grackles, and Herring Gulls

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Abstract
Herring gulls (Larus argentatus smithsonianus), starlings (Sturnus v. vulgaris), and purple grackles (Quiscalus q. quiscula) were submitted to 24-hr., 2-bottle drinking preference tests with saline opposite distilled water. Over a series of 16 concentrations which ranged from 0.005 M to 4.0 M NaCl, the herring gulls were as indifferent to the lower concentrations and as aversive to the higher concentrations as were the starlings and purple grackles. Possession of nasal salt glands by herring gulls may not serve to extend the range of indifference, or reduce the degree of aversiveness, to NaCl typically exhibited by land birds which lack the extra-renal mechanism.

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