GRAND ROMAINE AND OLD ROMAINE 



notwithstanding the protests of the mother, 

 who made a great turmoil on the water, flap- 

 ping about Hke a wounded bird. The pirate 

 bore the soft, downy thing to the rocks, and, 

 as we sailed by, we could see it pounding its 

 little life out and devouring it. M. Beetz has 

 seen this gull drop a young duck from a height 

 on the rocks to kill it, and quickly fly down to 

 pick up the tender morsel in the same way 

 that it drops clams and sea-urchins to break 

 their shells. The captain said that the people 

 here thought this habit of preying on eggs and 

 young of other birds was a recently acquired 

 trait because "bait," small fish, were scarce, 

 but Audubon in his Journal says, "The L. 

 marinus is extremely abundant here; they are 

 forever harassing every other bird, sucking 

 their eggs and devouring their young"; and 

 again, "The Larus marinus was observed try- 

 ing to catch the young of the Eiders." 



As with some other pirates and highwaymen, 

 the home life of this gull is, however, of the 

 best, and I watched with great pleasure two 

 pairs of these birds on different parts of the 

 island close to our anchorage, which were all 

 devotion. They learned that we did not intend 



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