GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL 
47. Larus marinus. 29 in. 
Largest and most powerful of our gulls. Adults in 
summer have the head, tail and underparts white, back 
slaty black, eyes and bill yellow, with a red spot near 
the tip of the lower mandible; feet flesh color; primaries 
tipped with white. In winter, the head is streaked with 
dusky. Young birds are mottled with dusky brown 
above, and streaked with the same below. These birds | 
are very rapacious, and besides feeding upon refuse, fish | 
and shellfish, devour, during the summer season, a great 
many eggs and young of other sea birds; this habit is 
common to nearly all the larger gulls. 
Notes.—A laughing “ ha-ha” and a harsh “ keouw.” 
Nest.—Either hollows on the ground or masses of " 
weeds and drift, hollowed out to receive the three 7, 
grayish brown eggs, spotted with blackish and lilac. 
(d2x 2:15). 
Range.—These gulls breed from Newfoundland north- 
ward, being most abundant on the Labrador coast. In 
winter they are found as far south as the Carolinas, 
usually in company with Herrings Gulls. 
