S06 NATURAL HISTORY. 



" In the interstices of the scoriae and lava round this nursery lurk numbers of wild cats (not 

 Felis catus, but the domestic breed run wild), and the bones of both old and young birds tell the 

 tale of the ravages they commit." 



Soue of the most curious of the Terns are the White Noddies (Gygis) which inhabit the 

 Southern Ocean, and lay but a single egg, which is placed, according to Mr. Howard Saunders, in the 

 cavity of the branch of a tree, or in a fork of two branches, and on the points of the coral reefs; 

 anywhere, in fact, where it will lie. 



THE THIRD SUB-FAMILY OF THE LARIDJE, OR GULLS. 

 THE TRUE GULLS (Larince). 



In the Gulls, whose style of plumage is very similar in character to that of the foregoing birds, 

 the wings are long and pointed, but not to so great an extent as in some of the Terns, and the bill is 

 stouter and much more curved, there being a very prominent angle 011 the lower mandible, accom- 

 panied by a swelling on the upper mandible, which in most of the Gulls appeal^ to divide the bill into 

 veiy distinct halves, the division being generally accompanied on the lower mandible by a patch of 

 brighter colour. The feet are also powerful, the tarsus longer, being equal to the middle toe and 

 claw. Many of the Gulls, and particularly the Skuas (Stercoraritts), are voracious robbers, while 

 some of them, on the other hand, are pretty, graceful birds, of shy and timid dispositions. The 

 Greater Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus) is one of the largest species known, and is peculiar to 

 Europe and North-eastern America. It is a bird of predatory habits, doing great damage to the 

 peaceful Eider Ducks and other wild-fowl, whom it harries relentlessly, and destroys numbers of their 

 eggs and young. Dr. Sundstrbm states that on the Island of Aland, off the Swedish coast, 

 where this Gull is common, it is justly looked on as a pest, and is destroyed whenever it can be 

 approached, which is not often, as it is very waiy when it finds itself followed. It daily devours 

 large numbers of fish, and destroys the eggs of the Eider and other Wild Ducks. He has seen it 

 swallow small Eider Ducks, and kill and eat larger ones, and on Aland he saw one of these Gulls 

 pursue an almost full-grown young Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator), and force it to dive again 

 and again, until it was tired out, when it fell a prey to its pursuer. Any dead birds that are floating on 

 water or ai-e on the ground are soon picked up by this Gull, and Dr. Sundstrb'in considers that 

 it should be kept down in numbers as much as possible, as it is a very destructive bird, especially 

 to tiseful birds like the Eider and other species of Water-fowl. The Lesser Black- backed Gull (Larus 

 fuscus) is a miniature of the Greater species, and is distinguished by its smaller size and by its 

 different note, as well as by its more active and lighter build. It is not quite so voracious a devom-er 

 of young birds as its larger ally, but destroys an immense number of eggs, and on the Feni Islands 

 Mr. Edward Hargitt tells us that when the boat landed on the island where the Cormorants bred, 

 they had to scramble up the rocks with the utmost speed to reach the nests of the latter birds before 

 the Gulls swooped down upon the undefended eggs. On the Fern Islands, writes Mr. Seebohm, in 

 his journal, the Lesser Black-backed Gull "is by far the most numerous bird. It is scarcely 

 correct to say that there are many colonies of them on the islands, as the whole group may be 

 considered to be a huge colony of these birds. It is a wonderful sight on nearing an island to see it 

 sprinkled all over with these large birds, every one standing with his back to the wind, like an 

 innumerable army of white weather-cocks, and still more wonderful when you land, and see them 

 flying about in eveiy direction, around and above you, like a living snow-storm, and a noisy one too. 

 A very small percentage of these birds are Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus), and the latter may be 

 readily distinguished by the decidedly lighter colour of the back and wings. The Lesser Black- 

 backed Gull makes a nest, which is a large slatternly structure of dry grass and weeds, with, now and 

 then, a lot of sea- weed, just the sort of nest that the agricultural native would be likely to make if he 

 had imported a colony of cocks and hens from the mainland in the hope of breakfasting next morning 

 on fried eggs and bacon. Wherever there was a suitable niche, amongst the rocks these nests were 

 placed without the slightest attempt at concealment. The number of eggs laid by these Gulls and 

 sent annually to shore for culinary purposes must be prodigious. The Herring Gulls (L. argentatus) 

 nest indisciiminately amongst their more numerous relations, and, in the few cases whore we were 

 able to mark the bird, we could discover no difference in the eggs, except that those of the Herring 



