492 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



I have frequently seen single birds, and sometimes a pair, on 

 the most rocky and retired parts of the coast between Dunbar and 

 Cove Bay, feeding on dead fish which had been cast up by the 

 tide. On these occasions they would remain tugging at the heavy 

 fish, and even drag it a little out of its place until put up by a near 

 approach; before, however, getting fairly on wing they were 

 obliged to run with a hobbling kind of motion eight or ten paces 

 until their bodies were inflated and their wings fully expanded. 

 Then as they rose, widening in their circles as they ascended, their 

 motions in the air seemed to me to be the perfection of ease and 

 freedom. 



During ^the breeding season their habits would appear to be 

 much less sedate. In Captain J. Eoss's ' Voyage of Discovery in 

 the ships Isabella and Alexander/ it is said: "They build on high 

 cliffs, and they destroy and eat the smaller aquatic birds. We 

 did not absolutely see them attack other birds; but when our 

 parties were out shooting the little auk, these gulls, hovering over 

 our heads, would pounce upon the wounded birds and carry them 

 off. A female bird that was shot disgorged a whole bird; and 

 being brought on board, it smelled so offensively that it was im- 

 mediately examined, and in its stomach was found another bird 

 quite whole; the stomach was distended and in a state of 

 mortification as well as the small bird." See Appendix No. 2, 

 p. 55. 



This bird is associated in my mind with at least one vivid 

 picture of a wild sea. On the iron-bound coasts of Berwickshire 

 fatal to many a gallant ship I witnessed some years ago a 

 terrible tempest raging, spreading destruction and death : sea and 

 sky were mingled in one dark, drizzling mass, and all else blotted 

 out save a foreground of rocks on which the broken waves were 

 crashing with the noise of artillery, and from which clouds of 

 spray were rolling landwards like wreaths of smoke from a battle- 

 field. Against the background of sea and cloud there appeared a 

 burgomaster gull and a small band of kinsmen the snow white 

 parts of their plumage appearing like specks on the pitch-like 

 neutral tint best understood by those who paint the "war of 

 elements." With a free sweep the splendid birds seemed to 

 rejoice in the tumult beneath, calling to one another in loud, 

 hoarse shouts as, after a moment's suspense, they dashed across 

 the gloom. From a peaceful-looking gull they had each become 



