AVES' 'LARID^E. 221 



and dives; whereas the gull has first to settle himself carefully as he 

 alights on the water, and has then to trust to the chance of some unso- 

 phisticated fish coming within reach of his bill. It was impossible to 

 avoid noticing the mortified appearance of the poor gulls as they looked 

 eagerly about, but yet caught only an odd fish, whilst their comrades, the 

 shags, were enjoying abundant sport. 



" It is odd that the silly gull manages at all to survive in the struggle 

 for existence. Here is another instance of his incapacity. A piece of 

 meat, weighing a few ounces, drifted astern of the ship one day, and for 

 its possession a struggle took place between a Dominican gull and a 

 brown hawk. The gull had picked up the meat, and was flying away with 

 it in his bill, when he was pursued by the hawk a much smaller bird 

 who made him drop it. Again the gull picked it up, and for a second 

 time was compelled by the hawk to relinquish it. The latter now 

 swooped down upon the tempting morsel, as it floated on the water, and 

 seizing it with his claws, flew off rapidly into an adjoining thicket, to the 

 edge of which he was followed by the disappointed gull." (Cop. Cruise, 

 "Alert," 1883, pp. 60-6 1.) 



The Common Brown Gull of the Channels referred to by Coppinger 

 was, probably, one of the two species of Megalestris that frequent this 

 region. 



"Nests are built of grass and sea-weed, near the sea, and are generally 

 wet within. Eggs are three in number, and in shape a pointed ovoid, 

 approaching to pyramidal. The shell is rather stout, brittle, and com- 

 posed of two distinct layers of about equal thickness. The external layer 

 is coarsely granular in texture, roughly mammillated superficially, and of 

 a dark olive-drab color, blotched by irregular spots of different tints, 

 Vandyke-brown, sepia, slate color and brownish-yellow. The slaty 

 markings are within the shell, the others on the surface. As in the case 

 of Buphagus, those of the same nest are generally similar in marking, 

 while those of different nests show considerable variety of hue. The 

 internal layer of the shell is closer in texture, of a pale apple-green color, 

 and shows under the lens innumerable small whitish trapezoidal columns 

 set transversely to the surface, in a matrix of a pale-green homogeneous 

 basis substance. The blotches are more closely aggregated at the large 

 end of the egg than elsewhere, and vary in shade according to their situ- 

 ation, superficial or deep. Some specimens of these eggs are not distin- 



