GULLS AND PETRELS. 231 



Eels also feed on carrion, and most fishes are as ready 

 to eat the dead as the living, so that any carcass which is 

 washed into the sea, or even left near shore, is soon dis- 

 posed of. 



The large white-winged Glaucous gull, which builds 

 in Greenland and Iceland, and comes as far south 

 as Shetland in the winter, resorts to the entrances of the 

 more exposed bays, or waits about a few miles from shore 

 in attendance on the fishing-boats, to pick up the offal 

 thrown out of them. The Dutch call it the Burgomaster 

 or Chief Magistrate of the birds in Spitzbergen, where it 

 follows the whale-fishers, in company with the Fulmar 

 Petrel and Kittiwake, or Ivory gull, which it forces to give 

 up their most dainty morsels whenever it takes a fancy to 

 them. It is very dexterous in carrying off its food on the 

 wing. 



The common gull may frequently be seen hunting for 

 refuse on any sandy flats, such as those about the Thames, 

 but the Skua gull is seldom seen so far south. It also feeds 

 on dead whales and other carrion, but it is a bird of low 

 and disgusting character, justly called the parasite, for it 

 is supported by the labour of others, and harasses the 

 smaller gulls, which it obliges to disgorge their prey to 

 satisfy it. 



The Fulmar Petrels follow in the wake of the whalers as 

 soon as they have passed the Shetland Isles, being very 

 greedy of whale-fat, and as soon as a whale is cut up they 

 flock together in thousands and follow the boats boldly at 

 the distance of but a few yards. When carrion is scarce 

 they follow the living whale, and so point out his where- 



