684 



GULL. 



the outer edges of the quills and tail-feathers pure 

 white, and the rest of the plumage white, with a rosy 

 tinge. The young are mottled with brown and 

 white, and have the tips of the quills and tail-feathers 

 black. They pass however through two changes of 

 colour, like the rest of the gulls, and therefore they 

 are apt to be mistaken. These birds are easily do- 

 mesticated, and are very ornamental as well as very 

 serviceable in gardens, by clearing them of slugs, 

 snails, worms, and other destroyers of vegetation, 

 while the birds themselves injure nothing. It is un- 

 derstood,that contrary to the habit of the others, which 

 admit of being thus kept, these birds do not require 

 to visit the sea, though they must be fed artificially 

 during the winter, an attention which their summer 

 labours well repay. For winter food bread soaked in 

 milk, or even in water, is very suitable for them ; and 

 they are not so voracious as the larger and more 

 seaward gulls. 



In the winter season they resort to the sea 

 coast, but it appears to be chiefly from want of food ; 

 and though they can swim, and are often seen flying 

 over the waters.watching for what the sea may cast up, 

 yet they are as frequently met with in company with 

 the running birds along the beaches. In the breed- 

 ing season they are very plentiful in Cambridgeshire, 

 and in some of the fens of Lincolnshire, resorting to 

 the most swampy parts, along with ruffs, red-shanks, 

 and snipes, whose nests are intermingled with the tall 

 tufts of bog-grass. The gulls trample down the grass 

 on the tops of the small insulated hillocks, and 

 there form a flooring for their eggs, which are 

 generally three or four in number, and usually of a 

 deep olive colour, mottled with brown, and dusky 

 blotches ; but they are liable to vary. The females 

 sit insulated on these about a foot or rather more 

 above the swamp or surface of the water. Though 

 thus seen at a considerable distance, they can better 

 observe the approach of an enemy, and cannot be so 

 easily shot. At the ceremonious feasts of the great 

 in former times, the young gulls of this'species were 

 served up at the tables. There is considerable in- 

 terest about these birds, as being one of the links 

 which more immediately connect together the birds 

 of the fresh waters and those of the sea. 



ICELAND GULL (L. Icelandicus). This species 

 bears considerable resemblance to the burgomaster 

 gull, formerly described, only it is smaller, more 

 handsome in its form, proportionally longer in the 

 wings, and altogether a more handsome and a more 

 active bird. The colours are nearly the same in 

 their distribution as those of the burgomaster, only 

 the ash-colour on the back is paler and purer in the 

 tint. The bill is much shorter and far more slender ; 

 the brown in the plumage of the young birds is also 

 paler. This species does not appear even in the 

 northern parts of the British islands, except as a rare 

 winter visitant ; and there is not much known of its 

 manners in its native north. It is understood to be a 

 rock breeder, and to nestle in the cliffs of Iceland, 

 Jan Mayen, Spitzbergen, and Greenland. 



SMALLER BLACK-BACKED GULL (L.fuscus). This 

 species is sometimes called the herring gull, as well as 

 the one already mentioned, but much darker; and there 

 is one peculiar character by which it is distinguished 

 from all the other gulls. Its feet are yellow, while in 

 the others they are reddish or dark coloured. The 

 upper parts are deep bluish grey, or slate black ; the 

 top of the head, the region of the eyes, the hind head, 



and sides of the neck are white, streaked with line* of 

 clear brown ; the forehead, lower part of the hack, 

 tail, throat, and all the under parts are pure while ; 

 the closed wings extend two inches below the point 

 of the tail, having the quills black with white tips, 

 which form a spot on each side ; the wing-coverts are 

 also blackish with white tips ; the irides and bill are 

 yellow, the latter with a red spot on the angle of the 

 lower mandible ; and there is a red spot round the' 

 eyes. The bird is about twenty-two inches long, and 

 weighs about as many ounces. The young have the 

 upper parts mottled with brown and yellow, the bill 

 blackish brown, and the feet dull yellow. These birds 

 are very generally distributed over all the northern 

 hemisphere, perhaps more so than any other of the 

 gulls : their habits are very similar to those of the 

 silvery gull ; and like that they follow the shoals of 

 herrings, and thus have an equal claim to the appella- 

 tion of herring gulls. They breed in great numbers 

 on some of the .rocky shores of the British island?, 

 more especially in Orkney and Shetland, but they are 

 found on the Black Sea and the Caspian ; and indeed 

 generally wherever the place is adapted for gulls, 

 even as far to the southward as the tropic, and occa- 

 sionally within it. 



THE BLACK-HEADED GULL (L, atracillus'). This 

 gull is about the same size as ridlbundus, so that the 

 two have often been confounded together ; and one 

 principal cause of the confusion appears to be, in the 

 winter, the time when they are most seen by na- 

 turalists and describers, the characteristic differences 

 of their plumage are considerably faded. This species 

 has the bill and feet deep lake red, while those of the 

 laughing gull are bright vermilion. The laughing 

 gull also has white on the primary quills, while this 

 bird has none ; and the head of this one is far darker 

 in the summer, being almost black. It is a very 

 handsome bird, and the colours contrast strongly 

 with each other ; the cape upon the head, which 

 extends a little way down the neck behind, is not 

 absolutely black, but very deep lead-colour ; the rest 

 of the upper part is lead-colour, but not so dark as 

 the cape ; the quills are deep blac*k, without any 

 white, and the under part is altogether white, with 

 very delicate reflections of rose-colour, which last 

 fade off in a very short time after the bird is killed. 

 In winter the forehead becomes white, with the ex- 

 ception of a few feathers at the base of the bill ; the 

 upper parts also become grey, with the exception of 

 the primary quills, which merely change to a deep 

 brown, differing little from black ; in the winter 

 plumage the under sides of the wings, as far as the 

 primaries, also become silvery white, giving a re- 

 markable appearance to the bird when it is seen from 

 below, and, for that reason, this is the gull which is 

 most generally introduced into paintings of the sea, 

 whether those paintings happen otherwise to repre- 

 sent its localities or not. Its localities are, however, 

 pretty extensive ; for, though its head-quarters are in 

 the North Seas in the breeding season, it finds its 

 way as far as the Mediterranean in winter, and that 

 in considerable numbers. It is a rock-breeding bird, 

 forming its nest in the same way as the silvery gull, 

 and indeed resembling that one very much in its 

 general manners. 



BKOWN HEADED GULL (L. capistratus). The 

 characteristic distinction of this species is a brown 

 mark on the upper and hind part of the head. The 

 bird is about fifteen or sixteen inches in length, but 



