GULLS. 159 



In the same " bird-city," but apart from the former, breed 

 also the Common Gull (Lotus canus) which is much smaller 

 and of a more slender shape, and also the Sandwich and Caspian 

 Terns. It is astonishing to see how each kind of sea-bird seeks 

 its particular spot for breeding ; only the auks and guillemots 

 herd promiscuously. What may induce the birds to meet in 

 such large bodies and then always to choose some particular 

 cliff? The gulls yield the fortunate possessor of their district 

 an annual income of at least two hundred rix-dollars. More 

 than thirty thousand of the eggs, which are larger than those 

 of the turkey, are collected every year, packed up with moss in 

 baskets, and sent to the market. Two or three persons are busy 

 from morning till evening, during the whole season, collecting 

 the eggs, and receive for their trouble those of the smaller birds, 

 which may also amount to about twenty thousand. But although 

 the terns appear in considerable numbers on Sylt, they have 

 chosen the small flat island, Norder Oog, to the west of Pel- 

 worm, for their chief residence. The breeding colony of the 

 Sandwich tern amounts here to at least a million of individuals, 

 so that when the birds are at rest, the island, at the distance 

 of a mile, resembles a white stripe in the sea ; but when their 

 innumerable multitudes hover above it, they seem an immense 

 white rotatory cloud. The eggs lie in some places so close 

 together, that it is almost impossible to walk between them 

 without treading upon them ; the breeding birds often touch 

 one another, and would not find room, if, like all sea-swallows 

 that breed socially on the coast, they did not sit in the same 

 posture, with their head facing the water. It is incomprehensible 

 how each bird can find its eggs ; it would even seem impossible, 

 did we not know the miracles of animal instinct. Their noise 

 is incessant, for even during the night they keep up a con- 

 tinual and lively prattle. He who approaches them during the 

 day is soon surrounded by these screamers, whose whirling 

 thousand-tongued multitudes stun his senses ; and these birds, 

 at other times so shy, flutter so close over his head, as often to 

 touch him with their wings. 



On Nowaja Semlja's ice-bound coast, on the peaks of isolated 

 cliffs, and suffering no other bird in his vicinity, dwells the 

 fierce imperious Burgomaster (Larus glaucus). None of its class 

 dares dispute the authority of the lordly bird, when with un- 



