272 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Dec. 1, 1865. 



PIRATICAL GULLS. 



DURING a few weeks' ramble through the Shet- 

 land Islands, I had opportunities of studying 

 and admiring the sea-birds, a great variety of wliich 

 inhabit the rocky shores. Tliey give animation to 

 the coast scenery, otherwise painfully solemn, from 

 the majesty of its stupendous cliffs, rising abruptly 

 from the sea to form a blank wall, three and four 

 hundred feet in height, and in a few cases towering 

 to that of six hundred. These cliffs on the western 

 shores of Ultima Thule are continued out to sea in 

 a long row of pinnacles and an uninterrupted scries 

 of arches — 



The hoary rocts of giant size, 

 » * * * 



Seen far amidst the scov;Iing' storm, 

 Seen each a tall and phantom form. 

 As hurrying vapom' o'er them flee, 

 Frowning in grim secmity; 

 While, like a dread voice from the past, 

 Around them moans the autumnal blast. 



These fantastic forms "indicate how the attrition 

 of the surf has told upon the iron-bound coast, 

 demonstrating that lines of precipices hard as iron, 

 and of giddy elevation, are in full reti-eat before the 

 dogged perseverance of an assailant that, though 

 baffled in each single attack, ever returns to the 

 charge, and gains by an aggregation of iniinitesimals 

 the result of the whole." '* For these rocks are 

 subject to the continued action of the fierce Atlantic 

 waves, hollowing out the more easily degraded parts 

 of these crystalline rocks, piercing them, and 

 detaching portions as needles ; awaiting the final 

 change when they shall be ground to sediment, and 

 so assist in the building up of like structures ; and 

 thus it is we see everywhere around us that this 

 apparent destruction is the real source of renovation 

 in nature. 



It is among these clifi's and natural caves that 

 multitudes of sea-birds scream aloft in middle air, 

 and have their homes ; here they resort for tlie 

 purpose of breeding, each species associating to- 

 gether in vast communities, and usually isolated 

 from others. Here is a cave, the haunt of the 

 Kittawake ; the top of that little shelving holm is 

 crowded with the nests of the common Gull ; on yon 

 ledge of rock, scarcely wide enough for the eggs to 

 rest on, is a longrauk of Guillemot's eggs ; around that 

 beetling cliff the Rock Pigeon is seen whirling in 

 rapid flight ; here and there on the face of the 

 same, are the burrows of the Little Puffin. Many 

 of these species breed together in apparent harmony 

 and good- will. 



But the most secluded of all the sea-birds are the 

 Skua Gulls, a species of a very interesting nature from 

 their peculiar habits and form, so ungull-like. They 



* Hiiffh Miller. 



are characterized by their boldness, rapid flight, and 

 by supporting themselves chiefly on the fish which 

 they compel other gulls to vomit. Of the Skua 

 Gulls, three species frequent the Sbetlands Archipe- 

 lago, — the Skua Gull, or Bonxie; the Richardson's 

 Skua, or Arctic Gull ; and the Pomarine Gull : they 

 belong to the genus Z<?s^r/s of naturalists, and though 

 closely allied to the true Gulls {Larus), yet they 

 appear to partake both of the nature of the Gull 

 and Hawk tribes. 



The Richardson's Skua, with the scientific appel- 

 lation, Lestris Richardsojd, is a very elegant bird, of 

 a blackish colour all over, with the exception of the 

 belly, which is of a rusty or tarnished hue ; not un- 

 frequently this gives place to a pure white ; others 

 with the breast more or less speckled graduate from 

 the white to the rusty. The Shetlanders regard the 

 black and white bird as the male ; but the varieties 

 of colour are without doubt the effect of different 

 periods of development, as one may see, where there 

 are numerous individuals, pairs belonging to the 

 same nest associated in every possible combination 

 of colours ; for evidently this species breeds before 

 it attains the plumage of maturity. 



The bird is seen to advantage on the wing; its 

 truncated tail, with the middle feather prolonged 

 beyond the rest, its long arched wings, and its rapid 

 flight, suggest to the casual observer the flight of tlic 

 Hawk. This impression would increase upon us, if 

 we should witness its piratical propensities exercised 

 among the Kittawakes and small gulls. Thus, while 

 one of the parent birds remains watching over its 

 progeny, its mate sallies forth to secure wherewith 

 to appease the hunger of its family. But fho 

 Richardson knows only one law of possession, that 

 which the strong exercises over the weak : might is 

 right with him. Poised on wing, or sailing to and 

 fro over the fishing-grounds of the smaller gulls, he 

 awaits a capture by one of them, and while the poor 

 bird speeds on his homeward journey, the Hiehardson 

 is after him, and through his superior power of flight 

 overtakes him, worries the poor gull, and to escape 

 this persecution the victimized bird disgorges its 

 fairly-acquired prey ; as it falls, it is seized by the 

 tyrant, who hurries home with his ill-gotten gains. 

 The cry of this gull is shrill and peculiar in tone, 

 and in the solitude of a summer's midnight-twilight 

 strikes on the ear of a person, a stranger to it, as an 

 agonized wail of a child. 



There are many breeding stations of this bird 

 throughout the islands, though there are rarely 

 more than a few pairs congregated in one place, yet 

 on Comb Hill, in the island of Foula, which these 

 gulls have appropriated to themselves for the purpose 

 of nidification, as many as from fifty to one hundred 

 pairs may be observed. 



Unlike the majority of the Gulls, the Richardson's 

 Skua sel ts for a breeding-place the heathy and 

 treeless moors at various altitudes, and distant a 



