174 THE GULLS 



Zemlya and other places subsist chiefly, if not entirely, on their 

 helpless neighbours' eggs and young. Scoresby says that the fulmar, 

 the ivory-gull, and the kittiwake all retire when the burgomaster 

 descends on its prey. W. H. Hudson noticed that a glaucous-gull 

 when approached by another gull while feeding, " looked fixedly at 

 him a couple of moments, then drawing in its head, suddenly tipped 

 its beak upward an expressive gesture, corresponding to the snarl of 

 a dog when he is feeding." a The significant movement produced a 

 marked effect on the other gulls. On the other hand, a nest of the 

 glaucous-gull has been observed surrounded at a respectful distance 

 by eider-ducks sitting quietly on their eggs, 2 and Kolthoff has seen an 

 eider-duck drive off a pair of these gulls. The Rev. A. E. Eaton also 

 says that the glaucous-gull stands in some awe of the fulmar in the 

 water, while on the ice the ivory-gull is treated with respect. 

 Dr. Saxby even goes so far as to describe it as good natured rather a 

 strong expression to use of one of the larger gulls, and adds that it is 

 the least meddlesome of its tribe, though a match for the great black- 

 back itself, and far more than a match for any of the rest. 



On an average the glaucous-gulls have left the Shetlands on their 

 way to their breeding-haunts by the middle or end of March, but they 

 are somewhat irregular and uncertain in their movements. Though 

 a single bird is said to have been seen at Bear Island in February, 

 Mr. A. Pike did not observe it on Spitzbergen till March 26, while 

 W. H. Neale records the first from Franz-Josef Land on April 22, 

 and Bunge saw the first at Horn Sound on April 4, and did not find it 

 common till May 5. 



They resort to the same breeding-places year after year, and 

 probably also make use of the remains of the former years' nests. 

 The tendency of this species is to breed in colonies, but the nests are 

 not placed close together, and isolated pairs are frequently found 

 nesting considerable distances away from any others. The nesting- 

 sites vary according to the locality ; thus on Spitzbergen many nests 



1 Land's End, p. 23. Zoologist, 1874, 3811. 



