GLAUCOUS GULL. oGl 



the fishing-boats, to pick up any offals tliat may be thrown 

 overboard ; and it is often taken by a line and hook baited 

 with fish, when engaged in this pursuit. It is greedy 

 and voracious to a proverb; and when allured by carrion, 

 which seems to be its favourite food, becomes comparatively 

 indifferent to danger. It then quits the ocean and headlands, 

 enters the bays, and boldly ventures inland. Its usual 

 deportment is grave and silent, exhibiting little of the charac- 

 teristic vivacity or inquisitiveness of many of its tribe, and it 

 is roused to exertion chiefly by a sense of danger, or the crav- 

 ings of hunger. When it flies it extends its wings more than 

 the other species of Gull, and its flight is also more buoyant ; 

 and, Avhen not in quest of food, it is of a reserved disposition, 

 and seldom comes within the range of a fowling-piece, but 

 soars at a respectful distance, uttering, at intervals, a hoarse 

 scream, of a sound peculiar to itself. It exhibits none of that 

 remarkable instinct so predominant in many species of the 

 genus, which prompts them, frequently at the hazard of their 

 own lives, to warn other animals in the vicinity of the sports- 

 man ; but when once alarmed, it commonly flies off. Its 

 muscular vigour is peculiarly great, proportionally superior to 

 that of the other Gulls ; and the power and execution of the 

 bill are so formidable, as to compel one to be very circumspect 

 in approaching it Avhen wounded. It is more perfectly an 

 oceanic bird than perhaps any of the larger species of the 

 genus ; and from its habits might be regarded as forming, in 

 some measure, a link between the more prominently-defined 

 Gulls and Petrels. I have always observed this species to be 

 uncommonly fat when it first arrives in Zetland, in autumn. 

 Indeed, I hardly remember ever seeing any bird equal to it in 

 this respect, — a circumstance which, together with that of 

 the singular compactness of its plumage, and voracious avidity 

 for carrion, first induced me to suspect this marine vulture to 

 be a native of the higher latitudes." He then concludes as 

 follows : — " If the opinions which I have suggested regarding 

 this Gull be adopted, they will present to ornithologists, of a 

 numerous and very interesting genus, a well-defined species, 

 before obscurely known, assuredly undescribed, as a British 

 bird, and may authorize the trivial name of Larus Islandicus, 

 VOL. v. 2 o 



