[19] SEA BIRDS AS BAIT FOR CATCHING CODFISH. 329 



it mij;]it. bo the case that tliej' had just swallowed some offal that had 

 been thrown out from the vessel. 



It sometimes hapjjens that the common gall {L. zonorynchns) gath- 

 ers in considerable nnmbers alongside of a vessel when fish are being 

 dressed, and they are A^ery active in securing their share of the offal 

 thrown out, but, as previously stated, they depend more on watching 

 and robbing the kittiwake than on venturing near enough the vessel 

 to snatch the coveted morsels as they fall in the water. When they do 

 attempt the latter feat it is interesting to note how skillfully it is per- 

 formed. Its timidity prevents the ring bill from lighting to seize the 

 food near the vessel ; therefore, the instant his keen eye detects a piece 

 of fish offal falling to the water, down he comes, swoo[)ing by with the 

 speed of the wind, and so accurate is his flight that he rarely fails to 

 snatch from the surface the object that he aimed at, and which he carries 

 off in his beak to a safer distance where he can swallow it unmolested 

 by the fear of man. 



The large gulls are sometimes, though not often, eaten by the fisher- 

 men; the smaller, tenderer, and more easily caught kittiwakes are pre- 

 ferred. It may be of interest to mention in this connection that the 

 coast fishermen of Newfoundland capture the young of the sea-gulls 

 (generally of the larger species) while they are yet nestlings, and care- 

 fully rear them until they are full grown, feeding them chiefly on fish. 

 A single family may have a dozen or twenty of these young birds. I 

 have frequently seen ten or a dozen young gulls in a single pen at 

 Belloram, Fortune Bay, and there were a number of such pens in the 

 little village. In many i)laces on the Newfoundland coast these birds, 

 I have been told, occupy the same place that with us is filled by the 

 domestic fowls. Instead of the conventional turkey for the holidays 

 the coast fisherman is satisfied with the young and fat gulls which he 

 has reared. And the family is considered fortunate which has among 

 its members one or two enterprising boys who succeed in capturing 

 several broods of young gulls on " off days," when they are not engaged 

 in fishing. 



The burgomaster gull. [Larus glaucm). 



This large and beautiful species occurs on the Grand Banks in the 

 winter season, especially when the weather is unusually severe, or when 

 there is an abundance of drift-ice on or near the banks. In the winter 

 of 1879 I noticed them on several occasions while anchored on the north- 

 west part of the Grand Banks, and on Green Bank, but, so far as my ex- 

 perience extends, they are never abundant. Two or three times we saw 

 as many as ten or a dozen of them flying about the vessel, but they were 

 so extremely shy that it was exceedingly difficult to entice them within 

 gunshot. In my journal, under date of March 14, 1879, I made the fol- 

 lowing entry : " Almost every day since we have been here I have seen 

 some of the burgomaster gulls." On the same cruise I succeeded in get- 

 ting a specimen, the shot breaking one of its wings. I brought this bird 



