TO THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 19 
that these birds lived on the excrement of the lesser 
gulls, which, on being pursued, either from fear, or 
to relieve themselves from the prosecution of fierce 
enemies, voided something to satiate the voracious 
appetites of their pursuers, and by that means escape 
from further molestation. The fallacy of this-opi- 
nion is now, however, pretty generally known. That 
the Arctic gulls do pursue those of their own genus 
which they can master (particularly the kittiwakes) 
is an incontestable fact; but the object of their 
pursuit is not the excrement but the prey that the 
pursued is at that time possessed of, and which 
at length they are forced to drop, to secure their 
own safety ; which they effect during the time that 
their enemy is employed picking it up, although that 
is done in a very short period, for they manage the 
business with such dexterity, that the object dropped 
is generally caught before it reaches the water. 
Gulls are not the only birds that disburden them- 
selves of their prey when pursued, for I often ob- 
served last summer that the fulmar peterel or mal- 
lemucke, when approached whilst feeding, (which I 
have seen them always do sitting on the water,) not 
only abandon their food, but even disgorge what 
they had swallowed before they would, or, as I ima- 
gined, could, take their flight. Several of them that 
we caught alive at different times, exhibited other 
proofs of the facility or power which they possess of 
unloading themselves of the contents of their sto- 
machs ; for whenever a person approached them sud- 
denly, they ejected a spout of oil from their nostrils. 
This is’ considered by naturalists (as I have no 
doubt is the case) a means of defence for these 
birds. 
c 2 
