GULL. 



685 



it is much more slender in its form than the black- 

 headed gull ; the bill and feet are also much smaller 

 than in that species, and indeed proportionally smaller 

 than in any other of the gulls, so that they make a 

 partial approach to those of the terns, and, as we 

 might expect, there is a corresponding- approach in 

 the manners of the birds; for this gull is much more 

 habitually seaward, captures its food more exclusively 

 when on the wing, and, consequently, is less on the 

 beaches, and feeds less upon garbage, than most of 

 the genus. It ranges over the northern seas, and, 

 though not common on our southern shores, it is by 

 no means rare in the north. The bill, the feet, and 

 toes, are brownish red, with the webs of the latter 

 brown ; the top of the head is purplish brown, termi- 

 nating in black, but not extending so far over the head 

 as the cap of the black-headed gull ; there are also a few 

 mottlings of white in the front margin of the cap ; the 

 neck, breast, and all the under parts, are pure white ; 

 the upper surface of the wings is pale greyish ash, and 

 the under greyish white ; the primary quills are white 

 in the centres, margined with black, the black margins 

 being broadest on the inner webs. Its colours are 

 understood to be subject to the same winter changes 

 as those of the other trulls, and the young to have 

 the same kind of mottled plumage, only varying with 

 the tint of the old binls, for the darker mottlings of 

 the young are always paler in those species which 

 have the entire colour paler in the old birds ; and 

 this is one means by which, when they are all 

 mottled, the young of the different species may be 

 distinguished from each other. From the lightness 

 of its form, the softness of its colours, its habitual 

 motion on the wing, and its frequently twitching 

 down to snatch from the waters those small substances 

 on which it feeds, this is far from being the least 

 interesting of the gulls. 



SAEINE'S GULL (L. Sabini). This bird is an in- 

 habitant of the extreme north, and has the legs 

 feathered, though not to the tarsal joint, as the 

 ivory gull has. Its structure, however, indicates a 

 far northern bird, the length of the tarsus being an 

 inch and a half, and the tibia feathered as already 

 stated. These are small gulls, breeding in the dreary 

 islands on the shores of Greenland, and associating 

 with terns and other birds. They are described as 

 picking up the principal part of their food along the 

 water-line on the beach, and seldom fishing. They 

 live in society, numbers of them breeding at the same 

 place, and they defend their young with great resolu- 

 tion. The eggs are two in number, placed on the 

 bare ground near the margin of the waters, and not 

 liiirh upon the rocks. These eggs are about an inch 

 and a half in length, rather rounded at the ends, 

 olive in the ground colour, but thickly blotched over 

 with brown. They are hatched about the beginning 

 of July, and the pairs are remarkably attached to 

 each other. No account of a very satisfactory nature 

 has yet been obtained of the changes to which they 

 are subject in the winter. 



LITTLE GULL (L. minutui). This is by much the 

 smallest of all the gulls, being only about two inches 

 in length, but it is a well winged little bird, and very 

 discursive over the sea. It does not come to the 

 British islands except as an occasional visiter. It 

 appears also to be more a Siberian bird than an 

 inhabitant of the Atlantic seas. The plumage of the 

 adult birds, in the winter, is bright bluish ash on the 

 upper part ; hind head, nape, and patch on the eye 



and ear, dark ash ; quills bluish, with a large white 

 bar on the tips ; coverts of the wings, and all the 

 under parts, pure white ; bill and irides brown ; feet 

 red ; the wings extend an inch beyond the point of 

 the tail. In the summer plumage, in which it has 

 been described as the Siberian gull, it has a black cap 

 on the head, and a spot of the same colour behind 

 the eye, and the wings ash-colour, with white tips. 

 The young are mottled. 



ASH-HEADED GULL (L. cirrocephalus). This is 

 described as a Brazilian species, but, in all probability, 

 it ranges over great part of the Atlantic. It is four- 

 teen inches in length. The bill and feet are red ; the 

 upper parts, and the throat and neck, are bluish a&h ; 

 the forehead white ; the first seven quills of the wings 

 black, with white at the bases, and when the wings 

 are closed, the black feathers project beyond trie 

 coverts, forming a spot on each side ; the coverts, 

 the tail-feathers, and all the under parts of the body, 

 are pure white. 



Many other species and varieties have been de- 

 scribed as inhabiting the seas of different parts of the 

 world, but little is known of them farther than has 

 been obtained from the inspection of a few museum 

 specimens ; and it does not appear that there is any 

 great difference of habit among them which may not 

 be found in one or another of the species that have 

 been enumerated. At all events, these include the 

 whole that have hitherto visited the British shores 

 either habitually or occasionally. We have been 

 somewhat minute in our notice of them, as gulls are 

 birds which are highly characteristic of the sea, and 

 peculiarly attractive to those who only occasionally 

 see tiie great waters. When a "sea-bird" is men- 

 tioned by way of eminence, a gull, a tern, or a petrel, 

 is always meant. 



SKUAS (Lestris). Though, in the northern parts 

 of these islands, the places where the people are 

 most familiar with sea birds, and most interested in 

 them, the members of this genus are called gulls, and 

 though the older naturalists included them in the 

 genus Larus, yet they are quite distinct both in their 

 structure and their habits ; and we have introduced 

 them here because it will not only save repetition, 

 but enable our readers to see more clearly the rela- 

 tion between them, which is in some respects a curi- 

 ous one. 



We mentioned that the gull may be considered as a 

 sort of vulture of the sea, and partakes of the voracity 

 and cowardly, or rather inoffensive, character of the 

 land vultures, although the great black-backed gull is 

 alleged to take advantage of the weakness of living 

 prey, in the same way as is said of the condor. There 

 is another point of resemblance between them which 

 is perhaps as striking, and that is the great length 

 and curvature of the wings, both in the gulls and the 

 vultures, which appear to fit them for floating long 

 upon the wing, and seeing their prey at great distances. 



Now as the gulls are thus, to some extent, the vul- 

 tures of the sea, so the skuas may be regarded as to 

 a similar extent the eagles and hawks of the same. 

 They are strong, bold, and plundering birds ; and 

 besides their peculiar mode of plundering the gulls, 

 to be hereafter noticed, they rob other birds -of their 

 eggs, and commit various depredations, which con- 

 duct on their part has, not inappropriately, gotten 

 them the generic name of Lestri, or robbers. In their 

 breeding places, which are in countries far to the 

 north, rarely if ever to the southward of the Orkney 



