G4.6 CLASS AYES. 



of their own species, in whose possession they see any food, 

 a fact, moreover, of which we are constant eye-witnesses in 

 other species, such as sparrows, hens, &c. ; but this is 

 widely different from the attacks and combats of ferocious 

 animals. 



It is especially during hurricanes that the gulls are ex- 

 posed to all the horrors of famine. Mauduyt has made some 

 interesting observations on them at Naples, during a tempest. 

 The gulls which dropped some time on the water, were too 

 light to be submerged, though they were tossed about by the 

 waves. Accordingly, after having seemed to have been swal- 

 lowed up, they soon reappeared upon the summit of the 

 billows, from which they sprung without difficulty, notwith- 

 standing the length of their wings. From this it seems pro- 

 bable that these, and birds of similar conformation, which 

 migrate to such considerable distances, rest themselves when 

 they have need on the bosom of the sea, from whose surface, 

 however furrowed, they can always rise without difficulty. 



Gulls have been found by navigators in all latitudes ; they 

 are, however, both more numerous and larger in the northern 

 regions, where the carcasses of large fishes and cetacea pre- 

 sent them with more abundant food, and it is on the desert 

 islands of the two polar zones, where they are undisturbed, 

 that they prefer to nestle. They deposit their eggs either in 

 a hole upon the sand, or in the crevices of rocks ; but in less 

 deserted countries the smaller species seek the borders of 

 waters, or of the sea, which are covered with plants. The 

 number of their eggs is not always the same, — sometimes 

 two, sometimes four ; and it is said that they constitute good 

 eating. The flesh of gulls is hard, coriaceous, and ill-tasted ; 

 and the people whom necessity obliges to make use of it, 

 hang up the body by the feet for some time, that the oil may 

 run out. 



The birds of the next genus, Sterna, or Terns, have 



