264 Dr. Bryant on the Birds 



that it has been represented as much more rapacious and tyranni- 

 cal than it deserves to be. On Greenlet Island, which I have al- 

 ready mentioned as the abode of great numbers of Eider Ducks, I 

 found twenty-two nests of this bird, among the number one not a 

 foot from the nest of an Eider, both containing eggs. I did not 

 see a single egg-shell or any apperance of any eggs having been 

 destroyed by the Gulls. On all the islands where the Herring Gulls 

 breed, this species is found in greater or less numbers, apparently 

 on as good terms with them as with its own species. I saw no pe- 

 culiarity in its flight, and have often watched one for some time to 

 ascertain what species it belonged to, before a good look of his 

 black back betrayed it. 



The nest is much oftener placed on the bare rock than that of the 

 following species, and is not unfrequently found singly on some 

 small rocky island, which the other never is. The eggs are three 

 in number, and are generally easily distinguished from those of 

 the Herring Gull by the color as well as size. The spots are gene- 

 rally fewer in number and much larger, and this is almost a speci- 

 fic character. 



The dimensions of four were as follows : 8l x 50 mill. — 69 x 

 51^— 70 X 57—69^ X 59. 



Larus argentntus, Briinn. This bird was not found by Audubon 

 breeding anywhere on the coast of Labrador. I can hardly at- 

 tempt to account for this. It is difficult to believe that a bird, now 

 one of the most abundant on the coast, breeding on nearly all the 

 grassy islands, and which the inhabitants state to have always been 

 abundant, could have been overlooked by Audubon; still, this is 

 the most probable supposition, and he mentions, as a fact, something 

 that would seem to favor this view, namely, that the Black -backed 

 Gulls change their plumage so as to resemble large Herring Gulls.* 

 I visited probably thirty breeding-places of this bird, between Ro- 

 maine and Chateau Beau, at all of which there were Black-backed 

 Gulls in greater or less abundance, but in the whole of this distance 

 found but one spot on which the Black-backed Gulls were 

 breeding by themselves in a greater number than one, or, at 

 most, two pairs. 



*" The most remarkable circumstance relative to these birds is that 

 they either associate with another species, giving rise to a hybrid brood> 

 or that when very old they lose the dark color of the back, which is 

 then of the same tint as that of the Larus argentatuSy or even lighter." 

 Jlud. Birds of America 8vo. vol 7, p. 1T8. 



