GULLS AND SKUAS 



frequently seen at the Zoo. The glaucous gull has a 

 paler plumage. The gulls are a group of birds found 

 more or less everywhere, and are of a fairly uniform 

 coloration. The prevalent hues are grey, black and 

 white, mingled in a way that everybody must have 

 noted ; a good many varieties of gull, comprising the 

 more common forms, are always on view in their own 

 special pond, and also in other enclosures at the Zoo. 

 An exceptionally coloured gull is the beautiful ivory 

 gull (Pagophila eburnea), which is brilliant white with 

 black legs. It is an occasional visitant to our shores, 

 and, though not willingly, to our Zoo. The greys and 

 whites of the gulls is believed to assist in rendering the 

 bird obscure on account of a harmony with frothing 

 waves, over the tops of which the gull skims, or on the 

 tops of which it rides. This may be so ; but the young 

 gull has a different plumage, which lasts for a long time, 

 and is of a speckled brown. What is sauce for the goose 

 ought to be sauce for the gosling ; if the old bird needs 

 this protection of invisibility, it might be thought that 

 the young needed it more, or at least as much. But 

 the colour of the young gull is not without significance 

 if we bear in mind those close allies of the gulls,the skuas. 

 Of these birds also examples are fairly certain to be 

 visible in one or other of the enclosures devoted to birds. 

 The prevailing hue of the skuas is brown. It is from 

 these birds rather than from the gulls perhaps that the 

 slang term "gull" is derived. For the skuas, though 

 powerful enough and agile enough to do their fishing 

 and food collecting generally for themselves, prefer to 

 worry and harass some other fishing bird, until they 

 make it drop its recently captured prey in sheer ner- 

 vousness or fright. The older ornithologists, unduly 

 impressed by webbed feet, put the gull near to the ducks 

 and other aquatic birds. They have, however, nothing 

 in common structurally except these webbed toes. 



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