GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 531 



with each other, if the object be large ; but to the Eagle, 

 whether the Golden or the White-tailed, they feel obliged to 

 yield, retiring to a short distance, and walking impatiently 

 about, until the unwelcome intruder departs. 



The liistory of this bird may be given in few words. In 

 Britain it is generally dispersed, some individuals remaining 

 all the year in the neighbourhood of those places which it 

 selects for breeding, and which occur chiefly in the northern 

 parts, while others advance southward in autumn, and in 

 winter and spring may be seen on all parts of the coast. 

 Vigilant and suspicious, it is not easily approached at any 

 season, it being of all our Gulls that which forms the most 

 correct estimate of the destructive powers and propensities of 

 man. Chief of its tribe, and tyrant of the seas, it evinces a 

 haughty superiority which none of our aquatic species seem 

 inclined to dispute. Little disposed to associate with its 

 inferiors, it passes its leisure hours, or periods of repose, on 

 unfrequented parts of the sands, or on shoals, or islets, often 

 on the bosom of the sea, just behind the breakers, where it 

 floats lightly on the waves, presenting a beautiful appearance 

 as it rises and falls on the ever-varying surface. In winter it 

 is scarcely gregarious, more than a few individuals being 

 seldom seen together ; but Avhen there are shoals of fish in the 

 bays or creeks it mingles Avith the other Gulls, from which it 

 is always easily distinguished by its superior size and very 

 loud clear cry, which may be heard in calm weather at the 

 distance of a mile. Frequently when flying it emits also a 

 loud rather hoarse cackle, having affinity in sound, although 

 not analogous in nature, to a human laugh. All the larger 

 Gulls are in one sense laughter-loving birds ; but if we take 

 note of the occasions when their cachinnations are edited, we 

 discover that so far from being the expressions of unusual 

 mirth, they are employed to express anxiety, alarm, anger, 

 and revenge. Its flight is strong, ordinarily sedate, less 

 wavering and buoyant than that of smaller species, but grace- 

 ful, effective, and even majestic. There, running a few steps, 

 and flapping its long wings, it springs into the air, wheels to 

 either side, ascends, and on outspread and beautifully-curved 

 pinions, hies away to some distant place, In advancin<T: 



