176 THE GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL. 



endeavoured to do so. I had become much attached to them, and now and 

 then thought they looked highly interesting, as they lay panting on their 

 sides on the deck, although the thermometer did not rise above 5.5°. Their 

 enmity to my son's pointer was quite remarkable, and as that animal was of 

 a gentle and kindly disposition, they would tease him, bite him, and drive 

 him fairly from the deck into the cabin. A few days after leaving St. 

 George's Bay in Newfoundland, we were assailed by a violent gale, and 

 obliged to lie-to. Next day one of the Gulls was washed overboard. It 

 tried to reach the vessel again, but in vain; the gale continued; the sailors 

 told me the bird was swimming towards the shore, which was not so far off 

 as we could have wished, and which it probably reached in safety. The 

 other was given to my friend Lieutenant Green of the United States army, 

 at Eastport in Maine. In one of his letters to me the following winter, he 

 said that the young Larus marinus was quite a pet in the garrison, and 

 doing very well, but that no perceptible change had taken place in its 

 plumage. 



On referring to my journal again, I find that while we were at anchor at 

 the head of St. George's Bay, the sailors caught many codlings, of which 

 each of our young Gulls swallowed daily two, measuring from eight to ten 

 inches in length. It was curious to see them after such a meal: the form of 

 the fish could be traced along the neck, which for awhile they were obliged 

 to keep stretched out; they gaped and were evidently suffering; yet they 

 would not throw up the fish. About the time the young of this species are 

 nearly able to fly, they are killed in considerable numbers on their breeding- 

 grounds, skinned and salted for the settlers and resident fishermen of Labra- 

 dor and Newfoundland, at which latter place I saw piles of them. When 

 they are able to shift for themselves, their parents completely abandon them, 

 and old and young go separately in search of food. 



The flight of the Great Black-backed Gull is firm, steady, at times elegant, 

 rather swift, and long protracted. While travelling, it usually flies at the 

 height of fifty or sixty yards, and proceeds in a direct course, with easy, 

 regulated flappings. Should the weather prove tempestuous, this Gull, like 

 most others, skims over the surface of the waters or the land within a few 

 yards or even feet, meeting the gale, but not yielding to it, and forcing its 

 way against the strongest wind. In calm weather and sunshine, at all sea- 

 sons of the year, it is fond of soaring to a great height, where it flies about 

 leisurely and with considerable elegance for half an hour or so, in the man- 

 ner of Eagles, Vultures, and Ravens. Now and then, while pursuing a bird 

 of its own species, or trying to escape from an enemy, it passes through the 

 air with rapid boundings, which, however, do not continue long, and as soon 

 as they are over it rises and slowly sails in circles. When man encroaches 



