GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL 



47. Larus marinus. 29 in. 



Largest and most powerful of our gulls. Adults in 

 summer have the head, tail and underparts white, back 

 slaty black, eyes and bill yellow, with a red spot near 

 the tip of the lower mandible; feet flesh color; primaries 

 tipped with white. In winter, the head is streaked with 

 dusky. Young birds are mottled with dusky brown 

 above, and streaked with the same below. These birds 

 are very rapacious, and besides feeding upon refuse, fish 

 and shellfish, devour, during the summer season, a great 

 many eggs and young of other sea birds; this habit is 

 common to nearly all the larger gulls. 



Notes. A laughing " ha-ha " and a harsh " keouw." 



Nest. Either hollows on the ground or masses of 

 weeds and drift, hollowed out to receive the three 

 grayish brown eggs, spotted with blackish and lilac. 

 (3.X2.15). 



Range. These gulls breed from Newfoundland north- 

 ward, being most abundant on the Labrador coast. In 

 winter they are found as far south as the Carolinas, 

 usually in company with Herrings Gulls. 



