GLAUCOUS GULL. 599 



hesitating superiority, it descends on its prey, though in 

 the possession of another. The Burgomaster is not a 

 numerous species, and yet it is a general attendant on the 

 whale-fishers whenever any spoils are to he obtained. It 

 then hovers over the scene of action, and, having marked 

 out its morsel, descends upon it and carries it off on the 

 wing. On its descent, the most dainty pieces must he 

 relinquished, though in the grasp of the Fulmar Petrel, the 

 Ivory Gull, or the Kittiwake. It seldom alights in the 

 water. When it rests on the ice, it selects a hummock, 

 and fixes itself on the highest pinnacle. Sometimes it 

 condescends to take a more humhle situation when it 

 affords any advantage in procuring food. It is a rapacious 

 animal, and, when without other food, falls upon the 

 smaller species of hirds and eats them. I have found the 

 bones of a small bird in its stomach, and have observed 

 it in pursuit of the Little Auk. Its eggs I have found on 

 the beach of Spitzbergen, deposited in the same way as 

 those of the Tern, namely, on the shingle, above high- 

 water mark, where the full power of the sun falls." 



The remarks of Faber in reference to this species at 

 Iceland, are, in substance, as follows : This bird remains 

 here all the year, keeping the open sea in winter, and 

 breeding in summer on the rocks of the southern and 

 western parts in company with Larus marinus, which it 

 resembles in some of its habits, in its nest and its eggs. It 

 attacks small birds, and robs their nests for food. It 

 feeds also on Cancer pulex and araneus ; extracts the 

 soft animals from the shells of Venus islandica, Pecten 

 islandicus, and searches closely for the Lump-sucking fish, 

 Cyclopterus lumpus, which it appears to delight in finding. 



The Glaucous Gull was found by our Arctic voyagers to 

 be numerous in Davi? 'Straits, Baffin's Bay, Greenland, and 



