GLAUCOUS GULL. 271 



of tlio dick, which consists of a piece of cork rudely 

 fashioned after the likeness of a fish, over which is spread 

 the skin of a mackerel, from which the hooks project, baited 

 with morsels of liver, a long line being attached to it and 

 allowed to float with the tide — many Gulls of diflercnt 

 species being taken in this way every year. 



Mr. Booth mentions that he saw a mature Glaucous Gull 

 flying between St. Leonards and the sea, and that on the 

 following day a specimen exactly resembling it was brought 

 to a bird-stuS'er in that town, which had been shot on the 

 large expanse of shingle that stretches along the shore 

 adjoining Pevensey Level. Mr. Jeff'ery notes one which was 

 shot at Selsey, in January 1870, and passed into his collection ; 

 another, now in Chichester Museum, shot at the same place 

 January 15th, 1873 ; and in 1882, in the same month, an 

 immature specimen obtained at Itchcnor. 



In the 'Zoologist'' (p. 6606) Mr. Wilson has recorded one 

 killed at Woi'thing in December 1857, with no remark. 

 The Glaucous Gull being a comparatively rare winter visitor, 

 I give from Mr. Dresser^s ' Birds of Europe' (vol. viii. p. 437) 

 the following description of its habits, which, he says, assimi- 

 late closely to those of the Great Black-backed Gull. Like 

 that species, it is extremely voracious, and commits great 

 depredations amongst the eggs and young of other sea-birds 

 and water-fowl, and, to a large extent, it feeds both its young 

 and itself on the eggs and nestlings in down of its weaker 

 neighbours, and renders itself a perfect pest to them. The 

 young of the Eider, and of several other of the sea-ducks, are 

 looked on by it as tender morsels ; and in places in the extreme 

 north, where these birds breed in large numbers, the Glaucous 

 Gull is almost sure to be present, devouring many of the 

 young, pouncing down on and catching them just as it 

 requires them. It doubtless also catches the smaller species 

 of mammals, and waits to take possession of the remnants 



