GULL. 149 



Herring Gull, Gen. S'yn. vi. 372. Br. Zool. ii. No. 246. pi. 88. Id./ol. 141. Id. 

 1812. ii. p. 181. pi. 33. Will. Engl. 345. Bewick, ii. pi. p. 214. Lewi»,vi. p. 

 7. IValcot, i. pi. 113. Orn. Diet. $ Supp. 



LENGTH twenty-six inches. Bill yellow, with a patch of red 

 on the under mandible ; irides yellow ; head, neck, and all beneath 

 white; the ends of the greater quills are also white, the outmost has 

 a black spot within the white at the end; back and wings hoary 

 grey; legs pale fulvous. Male and female much alike. 



Inhabits Norway, Lapniark, Greenland, and Spitzbergen, and 

 called by the Dutch, Burgmeister, being master of all other Sea 

 Fowls. Is every where on the sea coast and bays of Greenland, at 

 all seasons; lays three pale eggs on the crags of the rocks, among 

 the grass in May, about the size of those of a Duck, marked with 

 numerous brown spots. Its food various—chiefly the young and 

 smaller fish ; will prey also on dead whales : often destroys the young 

 of the Razor-bills, and will sometimes eat the berries of the black- 

 berried heath* in defect of other food ; is for the most part seen on 

 the wing, making a noise like that of a Raven, or as some think, 

 a Turkey. 



The young birds of the first year are pale fulvous, marked with 

 dusky spots, which gradually disappear, till the plumage becomes 

 perfect ; in this state the bill has no yellow spot, nor is it yellow. 

 Whilst young the flesh is esteemed in Denmark, and thought to yield 

 very little in flavour to that of a young Fowl. This bird is often 

 caught with a hook, baited with a small fish, as the Father Lasher, 

 or such like, on a pointed stick, tied in the middle and baited with 

 a lump of lard, or other fat; and now and then struck with darts, 

 whilst sleeping on the water. 



I have received this bird from Hudson's Bay, twenty-three inches 

 in length, and four feet in breadth. In this specimen six of the 

 prime quills were black at the ends, near the tip of the outer a large 

 spot of white, on the second a smaller one of the same on the inner 



* Faun. Groenl. 



