260 LARID.E. 



pair mixed with the black-headed gulls, and at rare intervals a 

 herring gull may be seen floating buoyantly upon the water, 

 but never feeding like the others. 



Often observed during spring in flocks of hundreds, they 

 present a very beautiful appearance ; their white forms stud- 

 ding the field, and resembling at a distance the snowy tents 

 of some fairy potentate ; whilst at other times we observe the 

 entire host wheeling about on the wing in endless evolutions : 



" The sea-mews from afar, 



Hovering above those inland solitudes, 



By the rough wind unscattered, at whose c all 



Their voyage was begun." 



Rare in its maritime breeding haunts, a few pair only ni- 

 dify at Lambay, but more common in inland situations, like 

 the black-headed gull, it selects islets in the lakes for that 

 purpose. In the county of Roscommon Mr. J. Irwin has re- 

 marked their presence on the small lakes, also frequented by 

 the terns for the same purpose. In the Book of Rights we 

 find a curious notice, perhaps applicable to this or the black- 

 headed species, where the king of Uladh (Ulster) is prohi- 

 bited u to listen to the fluttering of the flocks of birds of 

 Lock Sailleach [S willy] after sunset." This prohibition has, in 

 all probability, taken its origin from some king of Ulster hav- 

 ing been killed in the vicinity about the time for the assem- 

 bling of those birds. 



A habit of this species, closely resembling the black-backed 

 and herring gulls, is its stooping at any dog which may chance 

 to intrude upon its territory, several instances of birds being 

 shot by their want of caution in approaching those animals 

 having occurred to our notice. 



Indigenous. 



SPECIES 250 THE IVORY GULL. 



Larus eburneus. Gmelin. 

 Mouette blanche ou sancteur. Temm. 



THIS beautiful gull, so attractive from the spotless white plu- 

 mage of the entire body, contrasted with the black colour of 

 the feet, is one of great rarity, having only been obtained in 

 a single instance, when a bird in immature plumage was shot 

 in the county of Kerry, and came into the possession of Mr. 

 R. Chute, of Blennerville. Obtained after a storm, when two 

 others were observed in its company ; two of the three birds 

 alighted for several days in succession at Blennerville, and 



