GLAUCOUS GULL. 331 



The habits of the Glaucous Gull are very similar to those of the Tcelancl 

 Gull. The two birds frequent almost precisely similar localities, and both 

 are gipsy migrants, seldom wandering far from their summer-quarters so 

 long as food is obtainable. Dr. Edmonston gave a very complete account 

 of the habits of the Glaucous Gull as observed by him in Shetland. He 

 says it loves to frequent the mouths of the exposed bays, or the open sea 

 a few miles from land, where it attends the fishing-boats to feed on the 

 refuse that is thrown overboard. So greedy is it in its search for food that 

 it is often taken by a hook baited with fish. It is described as preferring 

 carrion to other food, and like the Vultures, when engaged in feeding, as 

 often quite iudifterent to the approach of danger. In winter the Glaucous 

 Gull congregates into large flocks which feed in eomjjany. Edmonston 

 observed that they went regularly out to sea to feed at a particular period 

 of the tide, and then returned nearer the land to rest. It is rather a pugna- 

 cious bird, and often robs other species of their prey, whence it is often 

 called the Burgomaster.. 



The Glaucous Gull is almost omnivorous in its diet. It feeds on small 

 fish, offal, garbage of all kinds, crustaceans, birds, and small mammals. 

 A Gull of this species has been known, when shot at, to disgorge a Little 

 Auk it had swallowed entire ; and it was afterwards found to have another 

 in its stomach. Dr. Malmgren once saw one of these birds swoop down 

 like a Hawk and capture a young Black Guillemot, carrying it to a 

 neighbouring rock, where numerous skeletons of birds bore witness to its 

 rapacity. It is very fond of frequenting the colonies of sea-birds, and 

 carries off great numbers of their young. 



The Glaucous Gull breeds on the cliffs at Vardo, and a large flock, com- 

 posed principally of immature and entirely of non-breeding birds, fre- 

 quents the stretches of sand left at low Avater near Vadso, thirty miles to 

 the south of the breeding-colony. When I was at this town, the Glaucous 

 Gulls were always to be seen at all hours flying about the harbour ; but by 

 far the greater portion of them retired to a distant sandbank, which 

 extended from the southern promontory of the island in the Varanger 

 Fjord, apparently to roost, as the sun approached the north. They were 

 very noisy before finally settling down to rest, continually uttering their 

 loud and harsh note, which may be represented by the syllables cut-luk. 

 Although at Vardo the Glaucous Gull breeds on the precipitous cliffs, 

 Harvic-Brown and I afterwards found its nest on one of the low flat islands 

 which separate the lagoon of the Petehora from the Arctic Ocean. This 

 island is a flat desert of sand unrelieved by a blade of grass, and rises very 

 slightly above the level of the sea, which varies very little (only five or six 

 inches) with the tide. As we approached the island we found a large flock 

 of Glaucous Gulls upon it, but were only able to discover two nests ; 

 these were heaps of sand hollowed slightly at the apex, and lined with 



