GULL. 



683 



their share of the produce, that the fishermen can 

 hardly drive them away. In winter they range con- 

 siderably southward, and are not uncommon about 

 some of the lakes in Switzerland, and farther east 

 they reach the Black Sea, the Caspian, and the Me- 

 diterranean ; while on the American shores they 

 range as far southward as the West Indian islands. 

 They get the name of herring gulls from the fact of 

 their being seen in vast clouds hovering over the 

 shoals of herrings, keeping up an incessant clamour, 

 and as occasion offers darting down and twitching 

 out of the water those fishes which are near the sur- 

 face. The flesh of this species is like that of most 

 of the others, tough and unsavoury ; but in those 

 Catholic countries where it is found in the spring 

 months, it is sold in the markets during Lent, as be- 

 longing to that class of birds which the pope and 

 cardinals have seen meet in their wisdom to consider 

 as fish, and allow to be eaten at all times when the 

 flesh of such birds as are not catholically fish is prohi- 

 bited under the most enduring penalty. 



THE IVORY GULL (L. eburneus}. The ivory gull is 

 not only the most beautiful of the race, which are 

 upon the whole rather handsome birds, but it is one 

 of the most beautiful of sea-birds of whatever genus. 

 It dwells in the extreme north, and does not quit the 

 icy seas unless compelled by the violence of the wea- 

 ther. It appears only occasional!}', and indeed as a 

 strasrgler, on the most northerly islands belonging to 

 Britain ; for when driven southward by a winter of 

 more than usual severity, it generally dashes onward 

 to a greater distance. It occasionally alights in Hol- 

 land, against which the winter winds from the polar sea 

 set much more directly than they do against the British 

 shores ; and this is the reason why some polar birds 

 which are rare with us, not only visit Holland regu- 

 larly during the winter, but extend their migration up 

 the valley of the Rhine as far as the Swiss lakes. 

 With us the winds of the polar sea are turned by that 

 general westerly or south-westerly current of air from 

 the Atlantic, which, though it deprives us of the visits 

 of those northern birds, gives us a much milder winter 

 than the same latitudes of the continent. The length 

 of the ivory gull is about twenty inches, the wings at 

 least four feet, and the weight upwards of a pound. 

 It is a bird of very elegant form, and perhaps there is 

 no wing which cleaves the air with so much apparent 

 ease as that of the ivory gull. Its colour is equally 

 fine ; it is of the most intense, and indeed indescrib- 

 able white, far purer than the snows of its native 

 regions ; and nothing can exceed the compactness, 

 the softness, and the exquisite gloss of its plumage. 

 Though it is called the ivory gull, ivory, or indeed any 

 other substance with which we are elsewhere ac- 

 quainted, gives but a faint notion of its extreme 

 purity. The feet are dark coloured, with the tarsi 

 very stout, and the tibia; feathered down to the tarsal 

 joint, whereas in most of the other gulls there is a 

 considerable extent of garter or naked space above 

 this joint. This species is a marsh breeder, but 

 breeds only in the extreme north, though there it is 

 understood to range round the entire circumference, 

 being as common between Asia and America, as it is 

 between the latter continent and Europe. The 

 young, of which the particulars are not very accurately 

 known, are said to be mottled, with the black predo- 

 minating in the first year, the white in the second, 

 and acquiring their entire plumage in the third. It is 

 probable that the appearance of some of those mottled 



ones in places pretty far to the south, and also that o 

 some of the other gulls breeding southward in their 

 immature plumage, may have led to the statement 

 made by some of the continental ornithologists, that 

 those gulls generally breed in the south of Europe. 

 On the contrary, there is no reason to believe that a 

 single nest of this species was ever found at any dis- 

 tance, if at all, without the polar circle. We might 

 be prepared to expect this from the character of the 

 feet, and also from the intense and unbroken white- 

 ness of the colour. There is no southerly breeding 

 gull, which has the feet feathered as these birds have, 

 so as to endure the utmost severity of the winter's 

 cold ; and there is no gull which breeds in the south 

 that has the plumage on the upper part so well suited 

 for resisting alike the intense cold of the winter, and 

 the continual action of the summer's sun. The nest 

 is described as being on the ground, rudely constructed 

 of vegetable remains, and the eggs as being four in 

 number, and of a white colour. 



LAUGHING GULL (L. ridibnndns). This is a well- 

 known species, and one which is very generally dis- 

 tributed. It is a bird distributed over many latitudes ; 

 and where there are marshes and pools, it resides as 

 much of the year inland as on the sea. In summer, 

 they collect in great numbers at favourite pools, 

 especially those which contain island?, for the purpose 

 of breeding ; and at those times tadpoles and other 

 productions of the water, together with worms, slugs, 

 and other things which they pick up on the humid 

 grounds, form the chief part of their subsistence. 

 There are some places, both in England and in Scot- 

 land, where they still breed in great numbers, but 

 more abundantly in the latter country. It is not 

 easy to find out what circumstance may determine 

 them in those parts where they have their nests ; for 

 there is a place in Strathmore, where pools of consi- 

 derable extent, containing islands, many tufts of 

 herbage, and to a great extent concealed by planta- 

 tions, are very numerous, and, to all appearance, 

 equally well adapted for the nesting places of those 

 birds ; but from time immemorial they have resorted 

 to one particular part in such numbers, that, when 

 they are alarmed, and take the 'wing, they appear 

 from a distance as if it were the smoke rising from 

 some mighty cauldron. But while they are thus 

 abundant, to absolute crowding, on this particular 

 pool, it is rarely that an individual is seen upon any 

 of the neighbouring ones, and there never is a nest 

 anywhere but at this one spot. This little lake is 

 also far from being the most secluded ; for one side of 

 it is open to the cultivated fields, and not very far 

 from human habitations. The birds, however, do not 

 appear to heed this, for the}' alight near the houses 

 with all the familiarity of magpies, and search the 

 fields with the same assiduity as rooks. What may 

 be the absolute quantity of specific service which they 

 perform to the farmers, it is not easy to say, but it is 

 a fact that, in that particular part of the country, the 

 crops rarely, if ever, suffer from grubs or other ground 

 insects. The birds, in their chosen habitation, are 

 exceedingly noisy, and their cries are plaintive and 

 wailing, but still they give a lively and picturesque 

 effect ; and it would be pleasant to see gull-pools in 

 more parts of the country. The length of this specie? 

 is about fifteen inches. The colour of the adult on 

 the upper part is clear bluish ash. The head, the 

 neck, and the wing-coverts, pure white ; a black spot 

 in front of the eyes, and another on the ear-coverts ; 



