GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 309 



tease him, bite him, and drive him fairly from the deck into the cabin. 

 A few days after leaving St George's Bay in Newfoundland, we were as- 

 sailed by a violent gale, and obliged to lie-to. Next day one of the Gulls 

 was washed overboard. It tried to reach the vessel again, but in vain ; 

 the gale continued ; the sailors told me the bird was swimming towards 

 the shore, which was not so far off as we could have wished, and which it 

 probably reached in safety. The other was given to my friend Lieutenant 

 Green of the United States Army, at Eastport in Maine. In one of his 

 letters to me the following winter, he said that the young Larus marinus 

 was quite a pet in the garrison, and doing very well, but that no percep- 

 tible change had taken place in its plumage. 



On referring to my journal again, I find that while we were at anchor 

 at the head of St George's Bay, the sailors caught many codlings, of 

 which each of our young Gulls swallowed daily two, measuring from 

 eight to ten inches in length. It was curious to see them after such a 

 meal : the form of the fish could be traced along the neck, which for a 

 while they were obliged to keep stretched out ; they gaped and were evi- 

 dently suffering ; yet they would not throAv up the fish. About the time 

 the young of this species are nearly able to fly, they are killed in consider- 

 able numbers on their breeding grounds, skinned and salted for the setr 

 tiers and resident fishermen of Labrador and Newfoundland, at which 

 latter place I saw piles of them. When they are able to shift for them- 

 selves, their parents completely abandon them, and old and young go se- 

 parately in search of food. 



The flight of the Great Black-backed Gull is firm, steady, at times 

 elegant, rather swift, and long protracted. While traveUing, it usually 

 flies at the height of fifty or sixty yards, and proceeds in a direct course, 

 with easy regulated flappings. Should the weather prove tempestuous, 

 this Gull, like most others, skims over the surface of the waters or the 

 land within a few yards or even feet, meeting the gale, but not yield- 

 ing to it, and forcing its way against the strongest wind. In calm wea- 

 ther and sunshine, at all seasons of the year, it is fond of soarino- to a 

 great height, where it flies about leisurely and with considerable eleo-ance 

 for half an hour or so, in the manner of eagles, vultures, and ravens. Now 

 and then, while pursuing a bird of its own species, or tryino- to escape 

 from an enemy, it passes through the air with rapid boundings, which, 

 however, do not continue long, and as soon as they are over it rises and 

 slowly sails in circles. When man encroaches on its domains, it keeps 



