20 BRITISH SEA BIRDS. 



extremely local, and nowhere, comparatively speak- 

 ing, numerous. During the non-breeding season 

 it wanders more, and is then seen at many places 

 along the coast. I have seen as many as fifty of 

 these fine birds in Tor Bay, after heavy gales from 

 the eastward. Montagu asserts that this Gull is 

 locally known as a " Cob," but the term is of pretty 

 general application to the larger Gulls, and, so far 

 as I can learn, has no distinctive significance. In 

 St. Kilda, where I had many opportunities of 

 studying the habits of this Gull, it is regarded with 

 hatred by the natives, owing to its depredations 

 amongst the eggs of the other sea-fowl. In this 

 island it is universally known by the name of 

 " Farspach." No Gull is more wary, and yet on 

 occasion none are bolder and more daring-. I have 



o 



seen a bird of this species tear to pieces a Puffin I 

 had shot as it floated upon the sea, and that in spite 

 of several shots I had at it with a rifle. It is a sad 

 robber of the other and more weakly Gulls, not 

 only pillaging their nests at every opportunity, but 

 chasing them, and making them relinquish bits of 

 food they may chance to pick up within view. 

 Like the Raven and the Crow, it seems fully 

 conscious of its marauding misdeeds, and corres- 

 pondingly artful, as if always instinctively fearing 

 that treatment it metes out so lavishly to creatures 

 more helpless than itself. 



The Great Black-backed Gull is one of the least 

 gregarious of the family, and the large gatherings 



