GULLS AND TERNS. 267 



sense birds of prey. They attack other sea-birds 

 and rob them of the food they have secured by 

 honorable effort. This, of course, makes them over- 

 bearing, fierce, and like, in their ignoble features, our 

 inland preying birds. These birds are in the northern 

 hemisphere, largely confined to the arctic regions, 

 coming southward in winter. 



Moseley, writing of these birds as seen by him in 

 the South Atlantic, says, " The skua is a gull which 

 has acquired a sharp curved beak and sharp claws 

 at the tips of its webbed toes. The birds are thor- 

 oughly predaceous in their habits, quartering their 

 ground on the lookout for carrion, and assembling 

 in numbers where there is anything killed in the 

 same curious way as vultures." They not only rob 

 the gulls, but one species eats birds, which they drag 

 from their nests in the ground. 



Of true gulls and their dainty cousins, the terns, 

 there are nearly twoscore species. They are much 

 alike in habits, yet vary exceedingly in size. In 

 plumage, too, there is great variation ; but notwith- 

 standing this, there is a family likeness that is un- 

 mistakable. A tern is a small gull, and a gull an 

 overgrown tern. The differences between Larus and 

 Sterna are plain enough to the specialist, but do not 

 stand out so prominently as to catch the eye of the 

 casual observer. George Ord, in his edition of Wil- 

 son, referring to the advantages of seeing rather than 

 reading of or hearing about birds, says of sea-gulls, 



" The zealous inquirer would find himself amply compensated for 

 all his toil by observing these neat and clean birds coursing along 

 the rivers and coast, enlivening the prospect by their airy movements : 



