370 VERTEBRATA.- AVES. 



trie describes it as resembling the clang of the Goose, 

 but deeper. 



Larus,* the Gull. 



A numerous and noisy tribe, of rather elegant 

 form and colour, diffused over all shores, and in all 

 seas, and occasionally making considerable excursions 

 inland. They are more at home on the land and in 

 the air than most of their brethren ; but this pre- 

 eminence is attended with a diminution of their 

 swimming and diving powers. The bill is slender, 

 and the legs long ; so that their appearance reminds 

 one of some of the Waders, to which their colours, 

 usually black, grey, and white, contribute. They de- 

 vour all animal, and even vegetable, matters. The 

 most common species on our coasts is the great Her- 

 ring Gull (L. Argentatus}; one of which, in 1832, 

 " struck one of the mullions of the Bell Rock Light- 

 house with such force, that two of the polished plates 

 of glass, measuring about two feet square, and a 

 quarter of an inch in thickness, were shivered to 

 pieces, and scattered over the floor in a thousand 

 atoms, to the great alarm of the keeper on watch, 

 and the other inmates of the house, who rushed in- 

 stantly to the light-room. The Gull was found to 

 measure five feet between the tips of the wings. In 

 his gullet was a large herring, and in his throat a 

 piece of plate-glass of about one inch in length."f 



* The Greek name of the Gull. t Popular Zoology, p. 372. 



