328 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [18] 



shy about iii)pioa(;hiii}jf ii boat or vessel for some time afterward, and it 

 may be anywlierc from a half hour to more thau an hour before one can 

 again be enticed within j^amshot. This being the case it will readily be 

 understood that only a limited nnmber can be obtained in this way, and 

 it may as well be said that whenever they are shot the sport and excite- 

 ment incident to the shooting is as much of an inducement for killing 

 tliem as the i)rocurement of the bodies for bait, though on some occa- 

 sions I have myself found the supply of bait so obtained of considera- 

 ble importance. 



I have never, to my recollection, known of fishermen eating marling- 

 spikes, but I know of no reason why they should not be as palatable as 

 gulls or hagdons, which are frequently cooked and eaten. 



Gulls {Laridw). 



The larger species of gulls, such, for instance, as the great black- 

 backed gull {Larus marinus) ; the herring gull [L. argentatus) ; the 

 burgomaster, {L. glaucus), Sabine's gull or the forked-tail gull {L. Sa- 

 hini), and some other varieties which frequent the fishing-banks in 

 greater or less abundance — the ring bill {L. zonorynohns) being the 

 most numerous — have rarely been used to any extent for bait. The ex- 

 treme shyness of the larger species; the fact that they, like the kitti wake, 

 are absent from the fishing-grounds in summer (going and returning 

 about the same time as the latter), and their comparative scarcity, even 

 during the colder portion of the year, renders it difficult to effect their 

 capture except by shooting them, and as one discharge of a gun will 

 generally frighten them so badly that they will not come near again for 

 several hours, if for the day, it seldom happens that more than one or 

 two individuals can be got in this way, an insignificant number when 

 several thousand hooks have to be baited. I have never seen a burgo- 

 master or L. marinus caught on a hook. On several occasions I have 

 seen the ring-bill captured in this way, but rarely more thau one or two 

 at a time. However hungry these large birds are (and they are gener- 

 ally very poor in flesh and in a half-famished condition), their extreme 

 timidity generally prevents them from approaching even within gun- 

 shot of a vessel. But they will chase a kittiwake which is flying away 

 with food with all the fierceness and persistence of a jaeger, and their 

 greater size and swiftness enables them to rob the smaller bird, thougli 

 when there are several of the large gulls in pursuit of the same object — 

 as is often the case — the result is generally a lively scrimmage in the 

 air, which is a decidedly interesting scene to witness. 



The larger gulls subsist chiefly ou the small fish which they can pick 

 up at the surface of the sea, but as they do not dive (so far, at least, as I 

 have been able to observe) their ability to obtain food is more limited 

 than that of the hagdon. I have rarely found any food in the stomachs 

 of the large gulls that I have shot or caught on a hook, except, perhaps, 



