POMARINE JAGER. 397 



flying close upon the rocks, and proceeding at a rapid rate even against 

 the wind. They remained in our neighbourhood until the tempest abated, 

 when they went off to sea, and I saw no more of them until we reached 

 St George's Bay in Newfoundland. 



There, on a squally afternoon, two or three of them were observed 

 flying around, but keeping at such a distance that we could not shoot any 

 of them. The following day, after setting sail, we encountered a heavy 

 gale, which, although foretold by me from the appearance of the birds in 

 the harbour, our good captain would not believe as likely to happen. We 

 were obliged to lie-to, and were tossed about for three nights and days, 

 but escaped with little other damage than the loss of a pet Gull, which 

 was washed overboard. 



On our return to Eastport, Captain Emery told me that he had seen 

 a great number of these Jagers near Cape Sable ; and at Halifax, in Nova 

 Scotia, I was assured that they breed on Sable Island, which is sixty or 

 seventy miles distant from the coast. I never observed one of these birds 

 along the shores of the United States, although some of the genus go as 

 far south in winter as the Gulf of Mexico. 



Nothing is known with certainty respecting the changes which this 

 species undergoes as it advances toward maturity. Captain James Clark 

 Ross, R. N. has informed me that a nest containing two eggs was found 

 by him near Fury Point, close by the edge of a small lake. I have no 

 doubt that this bird breeds in Labrador, as the female which I obtained 

 in July appeared as if it had young at the time. 



My friend Mr Selby states that he is not aware that an adult bird 

 has yet been killed in Britain. M. Temminck says it forms a rude nest 

 of grass and moss, which is placed on a tuft in the marshes, or on a rock, 

 and lays two or three very pointed eggs, of a greyish-olive colour, marked 

 with a few blackish spots. Dr Richardson has the following notice re- 

 specting it in the Fauna Boreali- Americana : — " The Pomarine Jager or 

 Gull-hunter is not uncommon in the Arctic seas and northern outlets of 

 Hudson's Bay, where it subsists on putrid fish and other animal sub- 

 stances thrown up by the sea, and also on the matters which the Gulls 

 disgorge when pursued by it. It retires from the north in the winter 

 and makes its first appearance at Hudson's Bay in May, coming in from 

 seaward." 



