96 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARCTIC AMERICA. 



frequented by the gulls. Some blubber or scraps of meat are exposed 

 to view on the top, and seldom fails to induce the bird to alight on the 

 roof of the structure. This is so thin that the Eskimo on the inside can 

 readily see the bird through the snow, and with a quick grab will break 

 through the snow and catch the bird by the legs. Some use a spear, 

 thrusting it violently through the roof of the hut. Many are killed by 

 exposing pieces of blubber among the hummocky ice and lying concealed 

 within proper distance for bow and arrow practice. 



By the middle of May they had become very abundant about Annan- 

 actook; still, there was no open water within fifty or sixty miles. 

 These were all adults in full plumage ; saw no immature birds till July. 

 They settle on ice around the Eskimo encampments, and even on the 

 rocks in close proximity to the huts. During this season they keep up 

 an almost constant screaming at all hours of the day and night. 



May 24, 1 noticed a couple of pairs building. I think this is the earliest 

 date they would begin nidification at this latitude. June 4, I saw a 

 few L. glaucus among a large flock of Som. mollissima that were diving 

 for food outside the harbor in a small lead in the ice. As soon as the 

 duck came to the surface, the gull attacked it till it disgorged something, 

 which was immediately gobbled up by the gull. The gull picked several 

 times at what was disgorged, which leads me to the belief that the food 

 was small crustaceans. This piratical mode of living is very character- 

 istic of Larus glaucus. At this season of the year there was so little open 

 water in the vicinity that they would have had great difficulty in procur- 

 ing any food therefrom themselves. I have taken the eggs by June 8, 

 Avhen there was more than a foot of newly fallen snow on the rocks j but 

 the greater number do not nest within two weeks of this time. 



A great many of these birds nest in Cumberland on what the Eskimo 

 call u jSTawyah nuna " land, of the Glaucous Gulls. This is an enormous 

 cliff about one and one-half miles in length and over 2,000 feet in height, 

 and nearly perpendicular. This cliff is about four miles from the sea- 

 shore to the ENE. of America Harbor. Many hundreds of nests are 

 scattered about on the little projecting shelves of rock, and the birds 

 sitting on them look like little bunches of snow still unmelted on the cliff. 

 The ascent to this locality is very laborious ; but the marvelous beauty 

 of the place will well repay any future explorer to visit it, for the plants 

 that grow in such rich profusion at the base of the cliff, if nothing more. 



This is the most common gull in Cumberland during the breeding 

 season. I did not see any south of Resolution Island in September and 



