The Iceland Gull. io1 



themselves to the northern parts, among the small inlets of which great numbers 

 pass the winter. When I lived on the innermost of the small fjords on the 

 northern coast, these birds were our daily guests. Towards the end of April 

 their numbers decreased, and by the end of May they had nearly all disappeared 

 from Iceland. These tame birds came on land by my winter dwelling on the 

 northern coast, to snap up the entrails thrown away by the inhabitants, and 

 fought fiercely for them with the Raven. I had made one so tame that it came 

 every morning at a certain time to my door to obtain food, and then flew away 

 again. It gave me notice of its arrival by its cry. This Gull indicated to the 

 seal-shooters in the fjord where they should look for the seals, by continually 

 following their track in the sea, and hovering in flocks, and with incessant cries 

 over them ; and whilst the seals hunted the sprat and the capeling towards the 

 surface of the water, these Gulls precipitated themselves down upon the fish and 

 snapped them up. In like manner they follow the track of the cod-fish in the 

 sea, to feed upon the booty hunted up by this fish of prey." Throughout the 

 winter of 1820-21 he tells how there were no Gulls, till suddenly on the 2nd of 

 March the Iceland Gull arrived in great numbers. " The Icelanders concluded, 

 from the sudden appearance of these Gulls, that shoals of cod-fish must have 

 arrived on the coast. They got ready their boats and nets, and the fish had in 

 truth arrived in such numbers that the fishing for that season commenced 

 immediately. Here where hitherto an ornithological quiet had reigned, everything 

 now became enlivened through the arrival of these birds, which, without inter- 

 mission, and with incessant cries, hovered over the nets .... this Gull was my 

 weather guide in winter. If it swam near the shore, and there, as if anxious, 

 moved along with the feathers puffed out, then I knew that on the following day 

 storms and snow were to be expected. In fine weather it soared high in the 

 air. Hundreds often sit on a piece of ice and in that way are drifted many miles." 



Dr. Saxby observes that this Gull may readily be recognized at any distance 

 " by its acutely pointed and somewhat long white wings and by a peculiar 

 roundness of body. The note, also, has a character of its own, somewhat re- 

 sembling that of the common goose. The bird seems to be partial to vegetable 

 food, often resorting to the fields, where it may not seldom be seen near the 

 pigs, which in Shetland are tethered by long ropes fastened to a stone or stake 

 in the ground. Possibly the earth worms rooted up may be an attraction. In 

 the stomach I have found a considerable quantity of oats and vegetable fibre with 

 numerous small pieces of quartz." 



