GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 311 



eggs in any open situation, the marauder assails her, and forces her off, 

 when he sucks the eggs in her very sight. Young Grous are also the 

 prey of this Gull, which chases them over the moss-covered rocks, and 

 devours them before their parents. It follows the shoals of fishes for 

 hours at a time, and usually with great success. On the coast of Labra- 

 dor, I frequently saw these birds seize flounders on the edges of the shal- 

 lows ; they often attempted to swallow them whole, but, finding this im- 

 practicable, removed to some rock, beat them, and tore them to pieces. 

 They appear to digest feathers, bones, and other bard substances with 

 ease, seldom disgorging their food, unless for the purpose of feeding their 

 young or mates, or when wounded and approached by man, or when pur- 

 sued by some bird of greater power. While at Boston in Massachusetts, 

 one cold winter morning, I saw one of these Gulls take up an eel, about 

 fifteen or eighteen inches in length, from a mud bank. The Gull rose 

 with difficulty, and after some trouble managed to gulp the head of the 

 fish, and flew towards the shore with it, when a White-headed Eagle 

 made its appearance, and soon overtook the Gull, which reluctantly gave 

 up the eel, on which the Eagle glided towards it, and, seizing it with its 

 talons, before it reached the water, carried it off". 



This Gull is excessively shy and vigilant, so that even at Labrador 

 we found it difficult to procure it, nor did we succeed in obtaining more 

 than about a dozen old birds, and that only by stratagem. They watched 

 our movements with so much care as never to fly past a rock behind which 

 one of the party might be likely to lie concealed. None were shot near 

 the nests when they were sitting on their eggs, and only one female at- 

 tempted to rescue her young, and was shot as she accidentally flew with- 

 in distance. The time to surprise them was during violent gales, for then 

 they flew close to the tops of the highest rocks, where we took care to con- 

 ceal ourselves for the purpose. When we approached the rocky islets on 

 which they bred, they left the place as soon as they became aware of our 

 intentions, cackled and barked loudly, and when we returned, followed us 

 at a distance more than a mile. 



They begin to moult early in July. In the beginning of August the 

 young were seen searching for food by themselves, and even far apart. 

 By the 12th of that month they had all left Labrador. We saw them 

 afterwards along the coast of NeAvfoundland, and while crossing the Gulf 

 of St Lawrence, and found them over the bays of Nova Scotia, as we pro- 

 ceeded southward. When old, their flesh is tough and vmfit for food. 



