BIRDS OF BERMUDA. 265 
they cruise about, at no great height, along the shores or among the 
islands. During the breeding season the parent birds “off duty” are 
to be seen in the neighborhood of their nesting places all the morning 
till about noon, when the greater part disappear in a rather mysterious 
manner. I came to the conclusion that they proceed to a considerable 
distance out to sea, returning at dusk, and this opinion was much 
strengthened by seeing two old birds sitting on the water one after- 
noon, at least 100 miles from the Bermuda shores. This was during a 
voyage from Bermuda to New York, on the 7th August, 1874, when the 
second *“‘young hopeful” had probably left, or was about to leave, the 
nest, and therefore does not prove much; butit shows that these strong- 
winged birds, who would probably do their 100 miles in three hours, or 
even less, do travel to such distances from land long before they have 
thought of quitting their breeding haunts. In Castle Harbor, where 
there are a great number of Tropic-birds continually on the wing, and 
where they are left comparatively undisturbed during the daytime, this 
disappearance is, or appears to be, on a somewhat smaller scale. 
Order LONGIPENNES. 
Family LARIDZ. 
Sub-family LARIN AL. 
Genus LARUS, Linn. 
166. Larus marinus, Linn. Great Black-backed Gull. 
Larus marinus, Linn., Gm., Lath., Temm., Boie, Steph., Flem., Bp., Nutt, 
Brehm., Jen., Eyt., Aud., Naum., Keys. & Blas., Schl., Gray, Lawr., Coues., 
Verr., and of other authors. 
Dominicanus marinus, Bruch, Bp. 
Larus niger, Briss. 
Larus nevius, Linn., Gm., Lath. 
Larus albus, Miill. 
Larus maculatus, Bodd. 
Larus maximus, Leach, Brehm. 
Length, 30; wing, 18.50; bill, 2.50; tarsus, 3. 
Hab.—American and European coasts of the Atlantic; south in win- 
ter to Long Island, Great Lakes, and Mississippi (Coues). 
Mr. Hurdis mentions an immature example of this Gull, which was. 
captured alive in the Great Sound in December, 1851, and Mr. Bartram 
has a fine specimen, also in immature plumage, shot by himself near 
Stocks Point, on the 27th December, 1862. 
