BIRDS OP THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 203 



260. LARUS EBURNEUS, Gmelin. Ivory Gull. 



No recent occurrence of this Arctic Gull * . One 

 which was obtained in the neighbourhood of Scar- 

 borough is mentioned by Mr. Yarrell. 



Mr. Boulton informs me, that many years since 

 he examined a mature specimen of this Gull that 

 was shot on the east coast of Yorkshire, 



261. LARUS CANUS, Linnaeus. Common Gull. 



Provincial. Sea-Mew. 



Less common than its name would imply. It is 

 the common Gull of the Humber only in the autumn 

 and winter, at which seasons flocks leave the river 

 every morning at daybreak and proceed inland, 

 often going twenty or thirty miles to their feeding- 

 grounds on the high wolds, returning again late in the 

 afternoon to the river, where they spend the night. 

 During these daily excursions to and from the coast 

 they usually fly in the same order and conformation 

 as wild geese, and higher or lower according to the 

 state of the weather. 



In the spring they proceed northward to their 

 nesting-stations. Those which we see in the river 



* Nests in the Arctic regions. It was seen by Dr. Kane on 

 the shores of the Polar Sea, near Mount Edward Parry. Dr. 

 Hayes, speaking of the boldness and rapacity of this Arctic 

 species, says, "I have seen the Ivory Gull seize our wounded 

 Auks, and after a sharp battle, carry them off in her talons. A 

 novel use of a palmated foot." (Hayes, 'Open Polar Sea.') 



