30 THR nRRRINO GULL. 



to be laid down^ as to the situations where these 'nests are to be found. 



The nest is a very comfortable oue^ of fair proportions^ with a fiat margin, 

 which this bird has wisely contrived to enable him to get comfortably out 

 and in; for the circular part of it, where the three eggs are deposited, is 

 barely suflScient to contain them. I have frequently remarked the warmth 

 which the egg so long retains after the Gull has been scared from her nest; 

 and my astonishment was increased on shooting one of the birds to find, on 

 separating the feathers on the under part of the breast and the body, a 

 space about as great as the palm of the hand, completely divested of feathers, 

 exhibiting a skin as fine as silk, and possessing an amount of animal heat 

 which I never could have anticipated. 



I am perfectly aware that the practice of denuding themselves of the 

 interior feathers of the breast, to assist in the process of incubation, is com- 

 mon, but how to account for this additional warmth is a difiiculty; for I 

 have never before remarked anything to compare with it in other wild birds; 

 and if we could ascertain that the same temperature prevails in the Swan 

 and the Pelican, it might necessarily lead us to suppose that such rapidity 

 of circulation may tend to longevity. It is quite out of my way to speculate 

 on its term of life; but as Cuvier has computed the age of a Whale at one 

 thousand years, might not Owen give us a comparative idea between the 

 age of this bird, and that of other birds whose span has already been ascertained. 



To furnish you with further evidence of the rapacity of the Herring Gull, 

 my friend Mr. Kemp is in possession of one at the present moment, which 

 we brought along with us from the island of Sanda, in the month of July, 

 1848, and as my absence from this country prevented me watching her as 

 frequently and carefully as I did "Snow," I state to you on this gentleman's 

 authority, that in the summer of 1851, he raised a brood of nine young 

 decoy Ducks, which he took especial care of by keeping them confined within 

 an outhouse in his garden; at the expiration of a few days, he allowed them 

 to get into the garden; when, horrible to tell, ^^Susey," as he calls the Gull, 

 swallowed the whole clecMn! The second brood which he raised consisted 

 of five, four of which, during one forenoon, shared the same fate; and the 

 remaining one she gobbled too, just as Mr. Kemp had fitted up some wicker 

 work for its protection. This Gull has never displayed the tact of the other 

 one, and her performances in Sparrow- catching, have been upon rather a 

 limited scale. 



I am afraid it will be rather out of place here to refer to the habits of 

 the {Larus marinus,) Great Black- backed Sea-Gull ; but the following notes 

 may go so far to support the preceding observations. He has a very doubtful 

 reputation, and although I have shot several specimens, I have never had 

 an opportunity of watching him at such a season as would have enabled one 

 to judge of his taste for the horrible, although I am inclined to look upon 

 him with great suspicion. Two gentlemen of my acquaintance, Mr. Gibb and 

 Mr. Kemp, who spent some time amongst the precipitous clifis and islands on 



