GULL 



teal the eggs of other birds. Many of the species 

 ure migratory, and ull .IK- powerful of u nr_- uml lly 

 with apparent ease against a storm, during which, 

 ho\>e\-er, they never soar so high a* in line weather. 

 Their kcenneHB of vision is remurkahle, an must 

 ha\e IHMMI observed liy every one who has watched 

 tli'-iii following in tin* wake of a steamer, and noted 

 tin' distance from which they see even a small 

 fragment thrown n tin- water, and the unerring 

 precision with which they dart down upon it. 



Heads of Various Species of Gulls : 



1, Great Black-backed (young); 2, Black-headed; 3, Kitti- 

 wake ; 4, Lesser Black-backed ; 5, Herring Gull. 



Gulls often nest together in large numbers, and 

 to dwellers by the sea a 'gullery,' with its busy 

 life and incessant noise of screaming and quarrel- 

 ling, is a not unfamiliar sight. The characteristic 

 cry of many gulls is well suggested in the old 

 name of ' Sea-mews.' 



The most widely distributed British species is the 

 Herring Gull (L. araentatus), which breeds on pre- 

 cipitous cliffs or isolated rocks all round the coast. 

 The nest is made of grass and is usually placed on a 

 ledge of rock, but sometimes on the ground ; and 

 Howard Saunders says that in North America, 

 wlii-n the bird has been repeatedly plundered by 

 fishermen, it even nests in trees. The eggs, usually 

 three in number, are light brown, green, or pale 

 blue, mottled with a darker shade. The male bird 

 measures 22 to 24 inches, the female is slightly 

 smaller ; the gray of the back and wings is lighter 

 than in most species, and on this account it is often 

 called the Silvery Gull. The Common Gull (L. 

 <*) is only a winter visitor to England and 

 Wales, but breeds abundantly on the Scottish 

 coasts and fresh- water lochs, in the Hebrides, and 

 in < h kney and Shetland. It lays three eggs, breed- 

 ing in colonies on grassy islands and slopes not far 

 alxive the level of the sea, and seldom going far 

 from land. Its average length is 18 inches. The 

 Great Black-backed Gull (L. marinus) rarely 

 breeds in England, though large Hocks mav be 

 seen at some seasons. In Scotland, particularly in 

 the Outer Hebrides, it is more plentiful, though by 

 no means common. The Lesser Black-backed Gull 

 (L. fuscits) is very abundant in the marshes of 

 Cumberland, and nests also in Devon, Cornwall, 

 and throughout Scotland. Its plumage is white in 

 summer except on the mantle, where it is dark 



fray or black. The Black-headed Gull (L. ridi- 

 HHiiitx i is the commonest species in Ireland, and 

 is plentiful on the flatter portions of the English 



and Scottish shore*. It has a dark-brown hood 

 in summer which disappears in winter. The Glau- 

 cous Gull, or Burgomaster ( /.. i/lnm-im), and the 

 Iceland (Mill (L. leucoptenm), vihit Britain occa- 

 sionally in cold weather. One specimen of KOKH'S 

 Gull ( Uhodostetkia rosea) was shot in York- 

 shire in 1840. Nothing in known of the breeding 

 habits of this rare and beautiful Arctic species, and 

 only twenty-three examples had been recorded 

 previous to 1881-82, when it was seen in large 

 flocks oil' Point Barrow in Alaska. About thirty 

 specimens of another truly Arctic species, the Ivory 

 dull (Pagophila ebuniea), have been taken in 

 Britain at various times. In North America gulls 

 are very plentiful. The (Jreat Black-backed Gull 

 (L. murinus) and Herring Gull (L. araentatus) are 

 common in the north-east, while the Common Gull 

 is represented by two' closely related species (L. 

 brachyrhyncus and L. delawar crisis). The Mackerel 

 Gull (Hydrocolceus scoptdinus) of New Zealand 

 may often be seen in attendance on the long-billed 

 oyster-catcher as he digs in the soft sand for blue 

 crabs and other delicacies, waiting quietly until 

 something is discovered, then flapping his wings 

 and making a dash at it. Even if the oyster- 

 catcher succeed in flying off with his prize he is 

 inevitably overtaken and compelled to give it up to 

 the swifter and stronger gull. 



The Great Skua ( Stercorarius catarrhactes ), which 

 breeds in the Shetlands, and is occasionally seen 

 on the coasts or fishing-grounds farther south, is a 

 splendid example of a robber gull, deriving its food 

 chiefly by victimising or even killing other sea-fowl. 

 It measures about 2 feet in length ; the plumage is 

 predominantly brown, 'with white bases to the 

 quills conspicuous in flight;' the cry, as the name 

 suggests, is skui, skui ; the nest is a cavity in the 

 moss and heather of the highest moorlands, and is 

 prepared in the later half of May ; the eggs (never 

 more than two) are olive-brown. Three other 

 species of Skua are recorded among British birds. 



The Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) is a very com- 

 mon bird on British coasts, and is elsewhere widely 

 distributed. As the specific name suggests, the 

 hind-toe has disappeared ; the length of the body is 

 about 15 inches ; white predominates in the plum- 

 age, but the upper surface is gray, and there is some 

 black on the wing. The kittiwakes feed on fish 

 and other marine animals, make nests of seaweed 

 and flotsam on the rocky ledges, lay two or three 

 eggs ' from grayish-white to olive-buff, blotched 

 and zoned with ash-gray and rich brown.' Howard 

 Saunders notes that as the eggs are seldom laid 

 until the later part of Mav, many of the young 

 can scarcely fly or are still in the nest by 1st 

 August, when the Sea Birds Protection Act leaves 

 them to be slaughtered in thousands to provide 

 plumes for ladies' hats. 



The flesh of gulls is rank and coarse, but that of 

 the young birds is salted for winter use on many 

 northern coasts. The eggs are much sought after, 

 and it is stated that from 40,000 to 50,000 eggs 

 of the herring gull are taken for food, in a single 

 season, from the island of Sylt alone. See 

 Howard Saunders, ' The Larime or Gulls,' in Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. (1878); and his and other manuals of 

 British birds. 



Gull* SIR WILLIAM WITHEY, physician, was 

 l>orn 31st December 1816, at Thorpe-le-Soken, in 

 Essex. He studied at Guy's Hospital, and 

 graduated M.B. at London University in 1841. Six 

 years later he was made professor of Physiology at 

 the Royal Institution, a post which he held for 

 only two years. About the same time (1847) h* 

 became physician and lecturer at Guy's Hospital, 

 his specialty being clinical practice. For his treat- 

 ment of the Prince of Wales in 1871 he received 

 a baronetcy, and was appointed physician -extra- 



