312 GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 



Their feathers are elastic, and good for pillows and such purposes, but 

 can rarely be procured in sufficient quantity. 



The most remarkable circumstance relative to these birds is, that they 

 either associate with another species, giving rise to a hybrid brood, or that 

 when very old they lose the dark colour of the back, which is then of 

 the same tint as that of the Larus argentatus, or even lighter. This 

 curious fact was also remarked by the yovmg gentlemen who accompanied 

 me to Labrador ; and although it is impossible for me to clear up the 

 doubts that may be naturally entertained on this subject, whichever of 

 the two suppositions is adopted, the fact may yet be established and ac- 

 counted for by persons who may have better opportunities of watching 

 them and studying their habits. No individuals of Larus argentatus 

 were, to my knowledge, seen on that coast during the three months which 

 I passed there, and the fishermen told us that the " saddle-backs were the 

 only large Gulls that ever breed there.'' 



This bird must be of extraordinary longevity, as I have seen one that 

 was kept in a state of captivity more than thirty years. The following 

 very interesting account of the habits of a partially domesticated indivi- 

 dual I owe to my esteemed and learned friend Dr Neill of Edinburgh. 



" In the course of the summer of 1818, a " big scorie" was brought to 

 me by a Newhaven fisher-boy, who mentioned that it had been picked up 

 at sea, about the mouth of the Frith of Forth. The bird was not then 

 fully fledged : it was quite uninjured: it quickly learned to feed on po- 

 tatoes and kitchen refuse, along with some ducks ; and it soon became 

 more familiar than they, often peeping in at the kitchen window in hopes 

 of getting a bit of fat meat, which it relished highly. It used to follow 

 my servant Pkggy Oliver about the doors, expanding its wings and vo- 

 ciferating for food. After two moults I was agreeably surprised to find 

 it assuming the dark plumage of the back, and the shape and colour of 

 the bill of the Larus marinus, or Great Black-backed Gull ; for I had 

 hitherto regarded it as merely a large specimen of the Lesser Black-backed 

 (L. JliscusJ, a pair of which I then possessed, but which had never al- 

 lowed the new comer to associate with them. The bird being perfectly 

 tame, we did not take the precaution of keeping the quills of one wing 

 cut short, so as to prevent flight ; indeed, as it was often praised as a re- 

 markably large and noble looking Sea-maw, we did not like to disfigure 

 it. In the winter 1821-2, it got a companion in a cock-heron, which had 

 been wounded in Coldinghame Muir, brought to Edinburgh alive, and 



