THE LABRADOR JOURNAL 



395 



July 12. At this very moment it is blowing another 

 gale from the east, and it has been raining hard ever since 

 the middle of the day. Of course it has been very difficult 

 to draw, but I have finished the Cormorant. John and 

 Lincoln brought in nothing new, except the nest and ten 

 eggs of a Red-breasted Merganser. The nest was placed 

 near the edge of a very small fresh-water pond, under the 

 creeping branches of one of this country's fir-trees, the top 

 of which would be about a foot above ground; it is like 

 the Eider's nest, but smaller and better fashioned, of weeds 

 and mosses, and warmly lined with down. The eggs are 

 dirty yellow, very smooth shelled, and look like hen's- 

 eggs, only rather stouter. John lay in wait for the parent 

 over two hours, but though he saw her glide off the nest, 

 she was too wary to return. I saw a Black-backed Gull 

 plunge on a Crab as big as my two fists, in about two feet 

 of water, seize it and haul it ashore, where it ate it while I 

 watched it; I could see the Crab torn piece by piece, till 

 the shell and legs alone remained. The Gull then flew in 

 a direct line towards her nest, distant about a mile, probably 

 to disgorge her food in favor of her young. Our two young 

 Gulls, which we now have had for nearly a month, act 

 just as Vultures would. We throw them a dead Duck or 

 even a dead Gull, and they tear it to pieces, drinking the 

 blood and swallowing the flesh, each constantly trying to 

 rob the other of the piece of flesh which he has torn from 

 the carcass. They do not drink water, but frequently 

 wash the blood off their bills by plunging them in water, 

 and then violently shaking their heads. They are now 

 half fledged. 



July 13. When I rose this morning at half-past three, 

 the wind was northeast, and but little of it. The weather 

 was cloudy and looked bad, as it always does here after a 

 storm. I thought I would spend the day on board the 

 "Gulnare," and draw at the ground of my Grouse, which I 

 had promised to Dr. Kelly. However, at seven the wind 



