GUINEA PEACH GULL, 

 nine inches long, sixteen in the extent of'the win^s, 

 and five ounces in weight. Its hill is not so decidedly 

 a fishing bill as those of the guillemots, and its wing's 

 are more powerful in proportion to its weight. Thus 



The Rotche. 



it is much more of an air bird, and more discursive 

 than either or them. In summer, it is generally met 

 with in the openings of the polar ice, dipping into the 

 water, and probably feeding upon those small animals 

 which inhabit the well known green-water of those 

 seas, and are in fact the cause of its particular colour. 

 The numbers of those birds which are met with in the 

 extreme north, during the summer season, is almost in- 

 credible ; and their flesh is represented as being much 

 belter flavoured than that of the guillemots. When 

 they visit the British shores, which is chiefly in the 

 winter, they remain nearer the land than the others ; 

 and upon land they walk much better. The bill in 

 this bird is very short, not the length of the head ; 

 and therefore we may conclude that it is not fitted for 

 following its prey to any very great distance through 

 the water. In the summer plumage, the breast, the 

 under part, the tips of the secondary quills, and a 

 spot above the eye are white ; and all the rest pure 

 black. In winter, the throat, sides of the neck, arid 

 flanks, become white, and the black on the upper part 

 changes to brownish. These alterations are seldom 

 complete however in the birds which visit our shores, 

 though they are understood so to be in the north. 

 Some of them remain to breed on our most northerly 

 islands, but by far the greater number remove nearer 

 the pole. In their breeding, there is a difference 

 between them and the guillemots, which would be of 

 itself a sufficient generic distinction : the female lays 

 two eggs, whereas no female guillemot lays more than 

 one. Those eggs are of a spotless greea colour, and 

 never placed but in some hole or crevice of the rock. 



GUINEA PEACH is the Sarcocephnlus esculcn- 

 tus of Afzelius. A cultivated fruit of Sierra Leone. 

 It belongs to the fifth class and first order of Linnaeus, 

 and to the natural order Rubiaceae. 



GUINEA PLUM is the Parinarium excelsum of 

 Don. A lofty fruit tree common at Sierra Leone. 

 The genus belongs to the Chrysobalanc<E. 



GULL (Lams). A genus of web-footed birds, 

 belonging to the long-winged division, and one of 

 the most characteristic which are to be met with on 

 the sea. They are exceedingly numerous, much on 



(>79 



the wing, and particularly noisy. They are birds of 

 powerful wing, and also well adapted for walking on 

 the shores, and some of them migrate inland at 

 certain seasons of the year, and in certain states of 

 the weather. Those which have this habit mingle 

 freely with land birds in seeking their food on the 

 newly-ploughed lands near the sea. They find their 

 sea-food indiscriminately in the waters and on the 

 shores ; and when they alight on the water they 

 can ride buoyantly so as to rest themselves. But 

 they are air-birds rather than aquatic ones, though 

 they derive the principal part of their food from the 

 sea. 



Gulls are found on the shores of all latitudes, and 

 they are very discursive, and often met with far from 

 the land, not so far, indeed, as the albatross, the tro- 

 pical bird, the petrels, and some of the terns, but 

 still a considerable way from the shores. When those 

 birds which are discursive over the sea are taken by, 

 severe gales, they have no such means of rest as land"- 

 birds have under similar circumstances. Generally 

 speaking, the land bird can get some shelter, some 

 elevated object which the wind does not agitate, in 

 the lee whereof it can pause with some sort of 

 repose until it recovers its powers ; or, even if it can- 

 not do this, it has the solid ground on which it can 

 crouch down, and there in so far recover itself, while 

 the wind sweeps over it. On the sea, however, there 

 is no such refuge for a weary wing ; and, therefore, 

 those birds which are discursive upon the broad 

 waters are much more buffetted by a gale, when 

 caught in it, than the land birds are. The wind 

 sweeps over the surface of the waters with much 

 more velocity, in proportion to its general violence, 

 than it does over the surface of the land, because, 

 from the general level of the watery surface, and also 

 from the extent to which it yields to the action of 

 the wind, there is far less friction between the air and 

 the water than there is between the air and the land, 

 whatever surface the land may have. Any one may 

 be convinced of this by standing, first on the lee, and 

 then on the windward shore, of even a moderate 

 expanse of water, say a river not broader than that 

 one can readily see across it. Standing on the wind- 

 ward shore, it will appear to be only a moderate, or, 

 at all events, a brisk gale ; while standing on the lee 

 shore, when the wind comes from the water, it will 

 appear a violent tempest. The difference of violence 

 will also tell in the different degrees to which the 

 surface of the waters is agitated. On the windward 

 there may be barely a ripple, while leeward there 

 is violent agitation ; and there is a gradual increase 

 of the waves all the way, clearly proving that the 

 wind gains power in blowing across the water, which 

 it does not gain in blowing across the land. 



In the case of gulls, and other air-birds of the sea, 

 which, though they go to considerable distances, are 

 not absolutely " far at sea" birds, but merely coasters 

 which venture a good way from the hind, though they 

 still own that land as their home, they are always 

 taken on a lee shore when a storm gets the better of 

 them. If the wind blow from the land, they can fly 

 against it, and so make for the shore, with considerable 

 labour, no doubt, but still without any drifting, such 

 as happens to them when they attempt to fly before 

 a wind with which they cannot keep pace. Indeed, 

 it is only such a wind that completely takes the 

 power out of those birds, and so drives them before 

 it, like wingless things, until their mere gravitation 



