272 THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



left by tlie seal-hunters when they have cut up a seal; 

 wherever the carcass o£ a whale or seal is cast ashore, these 

 Gulls collect together, like vultures, to regale on it. The 

 call-note, or cry, of this species closely resembles that of L. 

 marinus, as does also its flight; but where the two species 

 are found they keep apart in separate flocks. In its native 

 Arctic regions, it pertinaciously follows the whaling-ships, 

 feeding greedily on the blubber. 



ICELAND GULL. 



Larus leucqpterus. 



This is even rarer as a visitor than the last-described species. 

 An immature specimen is said, by Mr. Knox, to have been 

 shot near Pagham in January 1852, which was placed in 

 Chichester Museum. 



In December 1889, or the following month, an Iceland Gull, 

 also immature, was brought to Mr. Pratt, which had been 

 shot at the outfall of the Brighton sewage at Bolsover. Of its 

 habits little has been recorded. Mr. Saxby, in his ' Birds of 

 Shetland,^ p. 337, observes that this bird " seems to be partial 

 to vegetable food, often resorting to the fields, where it may 

 not seldom be seen near the pigs, which in Shetland are 

 tethered by long ropes fastened to a stone or to a stake in 

 the ground. Possibly the earth-worms rooted up may be an 

 attraction. In the stomach I have found a considerable 

 quantity of oats and vegetable fibre, with numerous small 

 pieces of quartz." It breeds plentifully in Greenland, and 

 also in North America, laying its eggs in a mere depression 

 scratched in the ground. 



In the ' Field,' April 10th, 1890, Mr. G. H. Nelson records 



