72 OCEAN BIRDS. 



near rivers and lakes, on the ground ; and sometimes, but rarely, in trees. They appear 

 to sleep equally well in three positions, — standing on one leg, squatting on the ground, or 

 floating on the water.* Mr. Howard Saunders divides this great subfamily into five distinct 

 genera, of which more anon. 



The Common Gull {Lams canus, Linn.). — For many years I kept three Common Gulls 

 in a garden, and most entertainining they were. They spent most of their time on a lake, 

 but always came up to the house to be fed, and tapped vigorously at the windows if no food 

 was forthcoming. Some were pinioned, some not. Those that could fly would take long 

 excursions, but always returned at night. They all had a rooted aversion to dogs, especially 

 one that had been retrieved twice one morning by an officiously-clever retriever : clever 

 because, though the Gull was caught and carried about a hundred yards, it was not in the 

 least hurt; officious, because nobody wanted it retrieved at all, as it was quietly walking 

 about in its own arena. It was, however, done so well that when some time afterwards I lost 

 a brood of Golden Pheasants, I employed the same dog ; and he found the whole number, 

 one by one, squatting in difi"erent parts of the garden, and carried them back to their 

 foster-mother, unhurt. Unfortunately for the Gulls, our chickens began mysteriously to 

 disappear. Two, of a different species (Lesser Black-backs), were at last caught red-handed, 

 striding off at a tremendous pace with a chicken apiece ; and the edict went forth to get 

 rid of all the Gulls. So perhaps the innocent suffered with the guilty. At the sea-side 

 their favourite spot seems to be the mouth of a sewer ; in shore they love following the 

 plough to feed on the newly turned-up delicacies ; our specimens simply ate anything 

 that was given them; so with such an "all-round" appetite they may very likely have 

 occasionally grabbed a chicken on the sly. An east wind always brings these Gulls up 

 the Thames in great numbers, and the longer it lasts and the harder it blows the farther 

 up they seem to travel. On the 19th of August, 1886, I saw a procession of twelve fly 

 solemnly over our house at Blackheath. 



Mr. Howard Saunders says few species differ so much in individual size. He says it 

 appears to be a species which attains its greatest development in the north and east, and 

 deteriorates in size as it ranges south and west. He gives its range, " Throughout the 

 Palaearctic region, but very rare in Iceland; once in Labrador." On an Australian voyage we 

 should be followed by them all down the Eiver Thames and the English Channel. 



The bird is thus described in YarrelFs ' British Birds ' (vol. iii. p. 454) : — " In the adult 



* In September, 1886, the electric launch 'Volga' passed a Common Gull between Dover and Calais 

 so sound asleep that they lifted it on board. 



