536 ACCOUNT OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



session of another. The burgomaster is not a nu- 

 merous species, and yet it is a general attendant on 

 the whale-fishers whenever any spoils are to he ob- 

 tained. It then hovers over the scene of action, 

 and, having marked out its morsel, descends upon 

 it and carries it off on the wing. On its descent, 

 the most dainty pieces must be relinquished, though 

 in the grasp of the fulmar, snow-bird, or kitty- 

 wake. It seldom alights in the water. When 

 it rests on the ice, it selects a hummock, and fixes 

 itself on the highest pinnacle. Sometimes it con- 

 descends to take a more humble situation, when it 

 affords any advantage in procuring food. It is a 

 rapacious animal, and when without other food, falls 

 upon the smaller species of birds and eats them. I 

 have found the bones of a small bird in its stomach, 

 and have observed it in pursuit of the rotch. 



The burgomaster is a large powerful bird. Its 

 length is about 28 inches, breadth across the wings 

 about 5 feet. Its colour, on the back and wing 

 coverts, is bluish-grey, the rest of the body beauti- 

 fully white. The bill is of a yellowish coloiu', with 

 a little red on the lower mandible, and measures 

 2 J inches in length ; the irides are yellow ; legs 

 and feet yellowish flesh-red. Its eggs I have 

 found on the beach of Spitzbergen, deposited in the 

 same way as those of the tern. 



The kittywake, snow-bird and burgomaster, are 

 sometimes shot for the sake of their feathers, wliich are 



